LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSCG 



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THE 
MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ITS ADMINISTRATION AND EXTENSION 

WITH EXAMPLES AND 
INTERPRETATIONS OF SIGNIFICANT MOVEMENTS 



EDITED BY 

CHARLES HUGHES JOHNSTON, Ph.D. (harvard) 

PROFESSOR OF SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON 



LB: 



Copyright, 1914, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 




<7< 

M 26 1914 

©CI.A376470 



PREFACE 

Among the fairly distinct problems confronting the 
serious student of our modern high schools are those of 
the specific adjustments which may be made consistent 
with the gradually clearing conception of social educa- 
tion. At present we do not perhaps greatly need any 
more books which attempt merely the consistent for- 
mulation of theories of social education. "One example 
is worth a thousand arguments," says Gladstone. This 
book contains those accounts and expert indorsements 
of high-school movements which are illustrating for us 
the only kind of social education which as yet can have 
definite meaning. The cumulative results of these ac- 
counts and definite points of view furnish data for a 
respectable social philosophy of education. The field 
covered is simply that indicated by the title of the vol- 
ume: i. e., a survey of policies, examples and sugges- 
tions of ways and means of making the strictly socializing 
work of our actual high schools more definite, more effect- 
ive and more nearly universal. 

A former volume ("High School Education") was 
concerned primarily with the problems of classroom in- 
struction in the different high-school subjects and with 
certain technical matters of administration closely re- 
lated to these problems. A third volume is under way 
which is to deal strictly and systematically with the 
clearly distinct problems of high-school supervision (es- 



iv PREFACE 

pecially of class teaching). It is hoped that this pres- 
ent second volume may make definite contributions and 
prove stimulating to the movement for promoting the 
efficiency of social administration as distinguished from 
merely mechanical administration of our high schools. 

This book is in no sense a compilation of articles 
written originally by different authors with different 
aims in mind. It is, instead, distinctly a work co-opera- 
tively undertaken with a clear agreement beforehand as 
to the one dominant purpose in view, which has been 
expressed above and which is elaborated in the Intro- 
duction. 

The editorial policy, in chapter headings and through- 
out the volume, has been to have these social problems 
called by their common names, and, where necessary, to 
sacrifice the appearance of adherence to a set sociolog- 
ical system of treatment in the interests of concreteness 
and wider appeal. The new awakening all over the 
country to a realization of the social and democratic 
meaning as well as the purely instructional nature of 
secondary education warrants the conviction that the 
popular demand for the book is genuine. There are, 
furthermore, no works at present which in any way 
cover the same field. The most impelling reasons for 
the issuance of the volume, however, are that it is gen- 
uinely needed, and that it will itself be an instrument of 
great social value. No other appeal or motive could 
have assembled so many specialists for such a co-operative 
venture. 

There has been a conscious and constant attempt on 
the part of all the writers to adopt a style which is not 
too technical, and a general mode of presentation which 
is as popular as the nature of the topics in question will 



PREFACE v 

allow. The reader may find in each chapter a formula- 
tion of general principles and a setting in educational 
theory for the definite proposals made to high schools. 
The editorial policy has been to modify or reconstruct, 
eliminate or make additions, only where consistency 
with the fundamental purpose set forth in the Introduc- 
tion (Chapter I) seemed to demand such alteration. 

The material of this volume has been used in regular 
college classes in Teachers College, Columbia Univer- 
sity, and in the University of Illinois. Many important 
changes and additions have been suggested by these 
kindly and co-operating critics, particularly the mem- 
bers of the summer-school classes of Teachers College. 
These latter large and representative groups of actual 
schoolmen, who had met the problems in their actual 
school settings, contributed much to what value the 
reorganized material here presented in book form may 
have. The volume, as was its predecessor, is dedicated 
to the high-school teachers of the country who now are 
finding themselves immersed in the very sea of prob- 
lems whose tentative solutions, or whose statements at 
any rate, the co-operating authors here seek systemati- 
cally to propose. 

Were the authors themselves not in a sense signers 
of the Preface and Dedication, they should be included 
in the above group because of their generous and cour- 
teous and constant attitude of co-operation throughout 
long months of the undertaking. 

Charles Hughes Johnston, Editor. 

University of Illinois, 
June, 19 14. 



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CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION 

PAGE 

Chapter I — The Social Administration of the 

High School 3 

By Charles Hughes Johnston, Ph.D. (Harvard), Professor of 
Secondary Education, University of Illinois. 

1. Co-operative treatment of high school problems neces- 
sary. 2. Difference between theory and practice of social 
education. 3. Contrasting types of high schools as to material 
equipment. 4. Contrasting estimates of the socializing work 
of the high school. 5. The new era and typical problems and 
tendencies. 6. The meaning of social administration. 7. 
Plan of the book. 

PART I 

the institutional relationships of the high 

SCHOOL 

Chapter II — High School Education as a So- 
cial Enterprise 20 

By David Snedden, Ph.D. (Columbia), Commissioner of Educa- 
tion for the State of Massachusetts. 

1. The high school a central agency in American education. 
2. Faith of the public in the high school. 3. Functions of the 
high school. 4. Factors in curriculum making. 5. Lack of 
curriculums based on science or experience. 6. Demand for 
a more vital education. 7. Need of a purposeful social edu- 
cation. 8. Traditional subjects discussed in regard to their 
social utility. 9. Dominant social utilities. 10. Need of 
flexible programme. 11. Suggestions for placing secondary 
education on scientific basis. 

vii 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



Chapter III — The Legal Status of the High 

School 42 

By James Howard Hanger, A.M. (Kansas), Superintendent of 
Schools, Rossville, Kans. 

1. Shortcomings of the American high school. 2. Need 
that the public school be placed on a firm financial basis. 3. 
Present system of taxation and distribution not satisfactory. 

4. Present status for different States. 5. Educational expert 
a public necessity. 

Chapter IV — The High School as a Business 

Enterprise 101 

By Homer W. Josselyn, A.M. (Michigan), Associate Professor 
of School Administration, University of Kansas. 

1. Development of secondary education in United States. 
2. Secondary education now a practical necessity. 3. High 
school statistics 1900 and 1909. 4. Increase in per capita cost. 

5. Charts showing high school enrollment, number of build- 
ings, number of teachers, grade distribution, public and pri- 
vate high schools, and mortality in high school. 6. Private 
and public enterprises compared. 7. Secondary education 
now in realm of "big business" enterprises. 8. Position of 
business manager established. 9. Current problems in second- 
ary education. 10. Educational experimentation in Newton, 
Mass. 11. Per capita costs in secondary and elementary ed- 
ucation. 12. Relation of expenditures for elementary and sec- 
ondary education. 13. Proportion of public funds to be spent 
on schools. 14. Need for increased qualifications for educa- 
tional workers, for larger salaries, for more men, for continued 
study after entering the profession, for leaves of absence with 
part pay, and for pensions. 15. Adequate reports to public 
a modern necessity. 16. Conditions in secondary schools of 
Kansas. 

Chapter V — The Relation of the High School 

to the Elementary School 164 

By Homer W. Josselyn, A.M. (Michigan), Associate Professor 
of School Administration, University of Kansas. 

1. Early educational conditions in colonies. 2. Latin or 
grammar school versus dame or vernacular school. 3. Rapid 



CONTENTS ix 

PAGE 

changes in nineteenth century. 4. Schools to-day not meeting 
the needs of many. 5. Our failure to accomplish universal 
education. 6. Increase in the subject matter not enough. 
7. Need for thorough readjustment of curriculum. 8. Gap 
between the elementary and secondary schools. 9. Increased 
interest of the public in educational affairs. 10. Comparison 
of period of American secondary education with that of Eu- 
ropean nations. 11. Period when secondary education should 
begin. 12. Purpose of public education to-day. 13. Need 
for reorganization of whole scheme of public education. 14. 
Chart with various suggested plans for reorganization. 15. 
Discussion of each plan in detail. 

Chapter VI — The Relation of the High 
School to Higher Educational Institu- 
tions 197 

By Clarence D. Kingsley, High School Inspector, Massachu- 
setts Board of Education. 

1. Preparation and selection of pupils for higher educa- 
tional institutions. 2. Elements essential to college prepara- 
tory curriculums. 3. Educational values of high school "ma- 
jors" and "minors." 4. Training for citizenship as aim of 
curriculum. 5. Limitations of small high schools. 6. Need 
for the general curriculum and its relation to higher education. 
7. Educational guidance denned. 8. Guidance in choosing 
electives. 9. Decision as to higher education. 10. Choice of 
kind of higher education and of particular institution. 

Chapter VII — The Relation of the High 
School to the Industrial Life of the 
Community . 209 

By Frank Tracy Carlton, Ph.D. (Wisconsin), Professor of 
Economics and History, Albion College. 

1. Early high school education was vocational in character. 
2. Haphazard changes in the high school curriculum. 3. The 
high school was organized before large-scale industry became 
important. 4. Effect of social inertia upon educational ad- 
vance. 5. Revolutionary changes in American life. 6. The 
practical standard of educational values. 7, The social stand- 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

ard of educational values. 8. The function of the modern 
high school. 9. Practical proposals. 10. The co-operative 
plan. 11. The public works high school. 12. Wisconsin's 
system of industrial education. 13. Cooley's plan. 



PART II 

THE MORE INTIMATE SPECIALIZED RELATIONSHIPS OF 
HIGH SCHOOL WORK 

Chapter VIII — Socialized High School Curric- 

ulums and Courses of Study . . . 229 

By Colin A. Scott, Ph.D. (Clark), Head of Department of 
Psychology, Boston Normal School. 

1. Historical beginnings. 2. Social pressure on the high 
school. 3. Superior authority and the course of study. 4. Co- 
operative course of study. 5. The Los Angeles High School. 
6. The Practical Arts High School. 7. Aim of social pressure. 
8. Example of a socialized curriculum. 

Chapter IX — The Details of Class Manage- 
ment in Its Relation to the Family, 
the Outside Community, and the Sub- 
ject 245 

By Dora Williams, Teacher of Physiology and Hygiene, Boston 
Normal School, Boston, Mass. 

1. Initiative in class work. 2. Organization. 3. Group 
work. 4. Co-operation of outsiders. 5. Effect upon the class. 
6. Recording values. 7. Raising the class standard. 8. Ex- 
tension of work. 9. Enrichment of the programme. 

Chapter X — The Direction of Study as the 

Chief Aim of the High School . . . 265 

By Alfred L. Hall-Quest, A.M. (Princeton), Assistant in Edu- 
cation. University of Illinois. 

1. The prevailing emphasis on the technic of teaching makes 
imperative a closer attention to the technic of study. 2. The 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

meaning of study. 3. Factors entering into the proper direc- 
tion of study. 4. The teacher's attitude in the classroom and 
its direct bearing upon the student's efficiency in study. 5. 
Books and the technic of study. 6. Conditions for effective 
study. 7. The importance of incentives. 8. Hindrances and 
distractions. 9. A modification of home study necessary. 
10. The social viewpoint of the high school makes possible a 
daily and active appeal to the pupils to fit themselves for citi- 
zenship through training their minds to work economically. 



Chapter XI — Social Value of School Study 

Versus Home Study 295 

By William Wiener, A.M. (Columbia), Principal of Central 
Commercial and Manual Training High School, Newark, N. J. 

1. Disadvantages of home study. 2. Efficiency and hu- 
manity in school policy. 3. Effect on teachers of system out- 
lined. 4. Remodelling and replanning of recitations. 5. Pro- 
motions. 6. Results of conference study plan. 



Chapter XII — Home and School Association — 

The High School's Right Arm . . . 312 

By Mary V. Grice, Founder of Home and School League of 
Philadelphia. 

1. The "Commencement." 2. Community need versus tra- 
ditional pedagogy. 3. The school approach — the home's ap- 
peal. 4. Combined forces, added power to both. 5. A home 
and school association. 6. Aims. 7. Methods. 8. Activi- 
ties. 9. Ultimate goal. 

Chapter XIII — The School's Co-operative 

Agencies 328 

By Stanton Olinger, M.A., B.D. (Kansas), Principal Westmin- 
ster Hall, Lawrence, Kans. 

1. The school a social creation. 2. Criticisms of the school. 
3. Formation of a home and school association. 4. Purpose of ■ 
the federation. 5. The spiritual or psychic aspects. 6. Phys- 



xii CONTENTS 



ical benefits. 7. Private gifts as a result of the federation. 
8. The moral and religious problem. 9. The present status. 
10. Advantages to the school. 11. Suggested subjects for 
programmes. 12. Organization of a home and school associa- 
tion. 13. Social experts a necessity. 14. Summary and con- 
clusion. 



PART III 

DEFINITE INTERNAL EXPRESSIONS OF THE SOCIAL NA- 
TURE AND SOCIALIZING FUNCTION OF THE 
HIGH SCHOOL 

Chapter XIV — The Internal Government as 
an Expression of the Social Character 
of the High School 355 

By H. L. Miller, A.B. (Kansas), Assistant Professor of Educa- 
tion and Principal of the Wisconsin High School, University 
of Wisconsin. 

1. Application of social standards to educational forces. 
2. Democracy and education. 3. General character of the 
high school periods. 4. External agencies as conditioning fac- 
tors. 5. Teachers and principal a representative social group. 
6. Development and expression of the corporate life of the 
school. 7. Adult guidance. 8. Social significance of class- 
room activity. 9. Means of establishing organic connection 
with community life. 10. Grouping of studies, n. Expressive 
activities of school life. 12. Interest and group activity. 13. 
Development of capacity for self-direction. 

Chapter XV — The Improvement of High 
School Teachers in Service as an Im- 
portant Factor in the Social Adminis- 
tration of High Schools 382 

By Charles Hughes Johnston, Ph.D., Editor and Professor of 
Secondary Education, University of Illinois. 

1. A reasonable schedule of professional reading for high 
school teachers. 2. High school faculty meetings which count 



CONTENTS xiii 



professionally. 3. Constructive supervision of class teaching. 
4. High school departmentalism and the assignment of work 
to teachers. 5. Promotion of high school teachers and means 
of measuring merit. 6. Scientific investigations by high school 
teachers. 7. Civic and social equipment of the modern high 
school teacher. 8. Common mistakes of new teachers and the 
amount and time of classroom supervision required. 9. Cer- 
tain miscellaneous suggestions for the improvement of teachers 
in service. 



Chapter XVI — The Administration of the So- 
cial Activities of High School Students 410 

By Jesse B. Davis, A.M. (Colgate), Principal oftlie Central High 
School, and Director of Vocational Work, Grand Rapids, 
Mich. 

1. Attitude of the administrative body. 2. Training for 
social efficiency. 3. Problems of reformation; traditions, social 
democracy, conduct of social functions, efficient leadership. 
4. A suggested plan of administration, advisory boards, an ad- 
visory council, a student council, leadership clubs. 5. Rules 
and regulations. 6. Classification of student activities. 7. So- 
cial efficiency and school records. 8. Credit toward gradua- 
tion for social efficiency. 9. Direction of social activities an 
administrative function. 



Chapter XVII — High School Athletics and 
Gymnastics as an Expression of the 
Corporate Life of the School . . . 429 

By James Naismith, M.D. (Colorado), Professor of Physical 
Education, and Director of Health and Physical Education, 
University of Kansas. 

1. Definition and forms. 2. Values of muscular exercise, 
hygienic, recreative, social, educational, moral. 3. Place in a 
school programme. 4. Methods of conducting school sports. 
5. Aims of physical education. 6. Principles governing the 
selection of sports. 7. Medical supervision of sports. 8. 
Equipment. 



xiv CONTENTS 



Chapter XVIII — Student Debating Activities 463 

By A. Monroe Stowe, Ph.D. (Columbia), Professor of Education, 
De Pauw University. 

1. The need for student debating activities. 2. Time of 
meeting for high school debating societies. 3. The relation 
of the faculty to the high school debating society. 4. Recom- 
mended methods of procedure planned to secure the greatest 
educational value from the work of the debating club. 5. Re- 
lation of the high school faculty to inter-high school debating. 
6. A method of procedure recommended for genuine inter- 
high school debates. 7. Author's note. 



Chapter XIX — High School Journalism: 
Studying Newspapers and Utilizing the 
School Paper 484 

By Merle Thorpe, A.B. (Leland Stanford), Professor of Jour- 
nalism, University of Kansas. 

1. Studying the newspaper. 2. Knowledge of current 
events. 3. As an aid in teaching geography and history. 
4. As an aid in teaching English composition. 5. Utilizing 
the high school paper. 6. Getting the paper started. 7. Se- 
lecting the staff. Duties of the staff. 8. Preparing for pub- 
lishing. 9. Campaigning for circulation. 10. Gathering ad- 
vertising. 11. The physical appearance of the paper. 



Chapter XX — High School Fraternities and 

the Social Life or the School . . . 498 

By John Calvin Hanna, A.M. (Wooster), State Supervisor of 
High Schools of Illinois, formerly Principal of the Oak Park 
and River Forest Township High School, Oak Park, III. 

1. The changed high school. 2. Legitimate activities. 

3. Causes for the development of the high school fraternity. 

4. Gang spirit. 5. Need which called forth the college fra- 
ternity. 6. College fraternities and individualism. 7. Indi- 
vidualism giving way to altruism. 8. Artificiality of high 
school fraternities. 9. Testimony of school authorities. 10. 
Methods of eliminating high school fraternities. 



CONTENTS xv 



PART IV 

ADDITIONAL SOCIALIZING FUNCTIONS OF THE MODERN 
HIGH SCHOOL 

PAGE 

Chapter XXI— The High School as a Social 

Centre 517 

By Clarence Arthur Perry, B.S. (Cornell), Assistant Director 
Department of Recreation, Russell Sage Foundation. 

1. A study in educational evolution. 2. Extension of pub- 
lic education general. 3. Attitude of high school in process of 
formation. 4. Growth of extension activities furthered by ad- 
ministrative tendencies and social conditions. 5. The prin- 
cipal's increasing initiative. 6. Responsibility to community 
keenest in rural high school. 7. Turning to the high school for 
cure of social ills. 8. Increasing the staff for social centre pur- 
poses. 9. Public education asked to prepare for group rela- 
tionships. 10. Social centre work a group-forming process. 
11. The group aspects of vocational life. 12. Preparing for 
social relationships. 13. Groups in civic life. 14. Cultural 
activities stimulated by the community. 15. The high school 
social centre for the city; the elementary centre for the neigh- 
borhood. 16. Practical first steps. 17. Conclusion. 



Chapter XXII — Continuation Work in the 

High School 546 

By Calvin Olin Davis, Ph.D. (Harvard), Junior Professor of 

Education, University of Michigan. 

1. Definition. 2. Historical sketch. 3. Present situation. 
4. Awakened interest. 5. Conclusions drawn from facts and 
theories. 6. Principles governing continuation work. 7. The 
problem restated. 8. Those for whom continuation work 
should be provided. 9. Classification of types of continuation 
work in the United States. 10. Analysis of the various types. 
11. Administration of continuation schools. 12. Obstacles. 
13. Summary. 



xvi CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter XXIII — Socializing Function of the 

High School Library 591 

By Florence M. Hopkins, Librarian, Central High School, De- 
troit, Michigan. 

1. Growing conception of the function of the library. 2. So- 
cializing function of the college library and the public library. 
3. Socializing function of the high school library. 4. Different 
high schools developing special phases. 5. The practical phase 
and the vocational phase. 6. The civic phase. 7. The cul- 
tural phase. 8. Lectures including parents. 9. Training for 
large views. 10. Libraries should be recognized as depart- 
ments. 11. Present versus future status of the library. 

Chapter XXIV — Vocational Guidance and 

the High School 608 

By Meyer Bloomfield, A.B. (Harvard), Director of the Boston 
Vocation Bureau. 

1. Principles underlying vocational guidance. 2. Need of 
understanding personal problems and capacities of the pupils. 

3. Educational guidance, foundation of vocational guidance. 

4. Description of questionnaire sent out by Bessie B. Davis. 

5. Special interest exerted in holding the interest of adolescents. 

6. Small proportion of pupils go to work because of pressure of 
circumstances. 7. Description of experiment carried on in 
North Bennett Street Industrial School. 

Chapter XXV — Avocational Guidance . . 629 

By William C. Ruediger, Ph.D. (Columbia), Professor of Edu- 
cational Psychology and Dean of Teachers College, The George 
Washington University. 

1. Recognition of the problem. 2. Activities influenced by 
education: vocational activities; social activities; supplemen- 
tary activities. 3. Objective and subjective viewpoints. 4. 
Avocations and diversions distinguished. 5. Prevalence of 
avocational pursuits. 6. Qualities of acceptable avocations: 
appeal to personal interest; progressive achievement; appeal 
to intellect; possibility of individual pursuit. 7. Relation of 
avocation to vocation. 8. Relation of avocation to social ac- 
tivities. 9. Needs for avocational training: general; spe- 



CONTENTS xvii 

PAGE 

cific. i o. The school and avocational guidance: directing at- 
tention of pupils; student clubs and organizations; content 
and method of instruction. 

Chapter XXVI — Co-operation in the Teach- 
ing or English 654 

By James Fleming Hosic, Ph.M. (Chicago), Professor of English, 
Chicago Normal College. 

1. The importance of co-operation. 2. Difficulty of learn- 
ing language. 3. Obstacles to be overcome; lack of uniform 
standards, absence of common aims, bad working conditions. 
4. Successful plans. 5. Methods of grading. 6. Summary. 

Chapter XXVII — The Hygiene of the High 
School — Medical Supervision, School 
Sanitation, Hygiene of Instruction . 668 

By Louis W. Rapeer, Ph.D. (Columbia), Professor of Psychol- 
ogy and Education, New York Training School for Teachers. 

i. Medical sociology. 2. Eugenics. 3. Heredity and the 
high school. 4. Educational hygiene. 5. Duties of physi- 
cians and nurses. 6. Medical examinations. 7. Ailments of < 
high school pupils. 8. School sanitation. 9. Hygienic teach- 
ing in the high school. 

Chapter XXVIII — The High School as the 

Art Centre of the Community . . 692 

By Ella Bond Johnston, Chairman Art Department, General 
Federation of Women's Clubs. President 1898-1913 The Art 
Association of Richmond, Ind. 

1. Rightful place of art in public schools. 2. Uniqueness of 
the Richmond story. 3. Organization. 4. Existing condi- 
tions. 5. Efforts of art association supplementary. 6. Ex- 
penses. 7. School house for art gallery. 8. Early exhibits. 
9. How they grew. 10. Attendance, n. Limitations. 12. 
Gallery in high school. 13. Management. 14. Schedule of 
exhibits for one season. 15. Opportunity for new relation- 
ship. 16. Use by high school. 17. By grades. 18. By clubs. 
19. By local artists. 20. Open days. 21. Permanent collec- 
tion of works of art. 22. Conclusion. 



xviii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter XXIX — The Moral Agencies Affect- 
ing the High School Student . . . 707 

By John Calvin Hanna, A.M. (Wooster), State Supervisor of 
High Schools of Illinois, formerly Principal of the Oak Park 
and River Forest Township High School, Oak Park, III. 

1. Agencies affecting moral training. 2. Responsibility of 
the school. 3. Responsibility of the family. 4. Helpful sug- 
gestions. 5. School virtues and life virtues. 6. The newer 
aim of education. 7. Patriotism as a basis. 8. The broader 
conception. 9. Manual training. 10. School as a social in- 
stitution. 11. School sports. 12. The teacher, the chief 
moral agency. 

Chapter XXX — The Religious Life of the 

High School Student 736 

By Emil Carl Wilm, Ph.D. (Cornell), Professor of Philosophy 
and Education, Wells College. 

1. The religious influences of the high school direct and in- 
direct. 2. Definition of religion and religious education. 
3. Religion as a theoretical world view. 4. Religion as an 
ethical inspiration. 5. Its imaginative redundancy. 6. The 
problem of religion in public education. 7. Significance of the 
secular curriculum for religious culture. 8. The importance 
of the teacher. 9. The question of specific instruction in bib- 
lical literature and history. 10. The situation in Germany. 
11. Lines of co-operation between the high school and the 
Sunday School. 

Bibliography 761 

Appendix 829 

Index » . . 841 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ITS ADMINISTRATION AND EXTENSION 



INTRODUCTION 
CHAPTER I 

THE SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Charles Hughes Johnston, Ph.D. 
professor of secondary education, university of illinois 

Co-operation of Specialists. — Organized co-operation 
in educational thinking, particularly of an administrative 
or social order, in matters of secondary education — like 
co-operative philosophizing — is a "sadly unaccustomed 
practice." The majority even doubt its desirability if 
they admit its possibility. However, we who are con- 
cerned with high school development must not delay 
further this provisional segregation of our definite and 
pressing problems, and we must collectively work out a 
common platform of essentials. This book represents, 
on the part of the contributors, a genuine and persistent 
attempt to think closely upon related factors of a com- 
mon social problem and ideal. The authors, further- 
more, attempt to think together in so far as the funda- 
mental and unescapable socializing functions of public 
high schools are concerned. 

Social Character of High School Education. — That 
public education in America, and especially high school 
education, should be primarily a socializing process gains 
universal and easy assent. Often in like manner we 
take for granted many things which are not, as a matter 

3 



4 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

of fact, happening at all. So it is too frequently in the 
case of our high school work. Our high schools are to 
make our citizens, we urge. Yet our citizens in great 
proportion remain unmade or are self-made. 

Now, the school, the state, and the church are typical 
and permanent forms through which society seeks to 
express itself. These institutions express collective in- 
terests and co-operative action, at the same time em- 
ploying individuals for typical and practical social 
exercises. The boy and girl in the school must be 
trained for and introduced into society; but, beyond 
this, they must be trained to contribute to society as a 
cause nobler than individuality itself. It follows par- 
ticularly that the American high school must, as a 
democratic public institution and agency, establish as 
well as foster social life. As J. Mark Baldwin has said: 
"The institutions of education are not something simply 
agreed to and adopted because they seem wise." They 
are natural expressions of society itself. Our high 
schools, then, are of the very essence of our democracy 
as well as a device for securing democracy. 

Elementary instruction of this social character is 
found in animal companies. The family more clearly 
is an educational institution, with drilling in the essen- 
tials of social life and habit. Just so the schools of all 
grades, but particularly the high school, must in a 
definite sense perform their socializing duties. These 
duties comprise partly the traditional academic or in- 
tellectualistic ones. Beyond this, however, they com- 
prise those more conventional and informal yet highly 
effective modes of schooling which come, through play, 
imitation, rivalry, social intercourse, and initiation, 
under supervised school control and direction, into the 



SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION 5 

various sorts of industrial and moral give and take 
which actual life later provides. There is a pedagogical 
side of actual society. Society is, so to speak, a con- 
tinuation school for all of us. The high school, in part 
at least, reproduces this life of society, embodying it 
either formally or indirectly in its very organization 
and life. The high school's general role, furthermore, 
must be that of socialization in such a way as to insure 
at the same time the integrity of development of the 
entire self of the student, his individuality as well as 
his purely social self. There is a fortunate concurrence 
between these two demands and ideals. A high school 
student will be most surely discovering himself as he 
has brought out for him his social nature and capacities. 
The capricious or freakish, unsocial or purely individual- 
istic genius is powerless and useless because he lacks 
contact with actual social forces. His life lacks real- 
ness. Our high school, then, to be socializing and col- 
lectivistic in its operation, must pointedly seek to reduce 
eccentricity, as such, and definitely and systematically 
plan to train its students' powers as the best social 
usages and common life demand. High school educa- 
tion is, then, a frankly utilitarian and functional activity 
of society itself. It is not primarily a luxury, academic 
or otherwise. It is a necessity. In a secondary sense, 
our system of high school education may provide also 
what we style luxuries of life. It may become an in- 
stitution for the promotion of moral and artistic senti- 
ment. It must, in this role also, index, measure, and 
establish social values of this higher kind and stimulate 
social attainments. 

Contrasts in Material Equipment. — So much by way 
of naturalizing high school education in our system of 



6 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

educational philosophy. It is well now to turn to the 
actual high schools themselves and to examine special 
expressions of the work of the existing system of high 
schools. From every point of view, existing high schools 
present interesting and varying degrees of approxi- 
mations to an ideal. The following description of ex- 
tremes as to equipment and educational environment 
will help us to realize our future programme of equalizing, 
on the higher level, high school opportunity for all our 
boys and girls. The first example is that of the great 
high school building recently completed in New York. 
The new Washington Irving High School is acknowledged 
by experts to be the finest public school building ever 
erected. It is an eight-story structure and occupies half 
of a city block in Irving Place, between Sixteenth and 
Seventeenth Streets. Some of the interesting features of 
the high school are: 

Seven-room apartment for study of domestic science. 

Conservatory on the roof for study of botany. 

Cages for animals to be borrowed from the New York 
Zoological Park. 

Fully equipped laundry. 

Bookbinding plant. 

Banking department, completely equipped with fur- 
niture, books, adding-machines, etc. 

Basket-ball courts on roof. 

Four gymnasiums with shower-baths. 

Seven large rooms for 200 sewing-machines. 

Typewriting classroom with 200 typewriting ma- 
chines. 

Classroom with department-store features for the 
study of salesmanship. 

Luncheon room for 700 pupils. 



SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION 7 

Auditorium, with large stage, where 1,550 persons can 
be seated. 

The school will care for 5,900 pupils, and 228 in- 
structors will be employed. Six high schools will be 
abandoned in Manhattan and the pupils assembled in 
the new building. The new high school building was 
erected at a cost of one and one quarter million dollars. 
Besides the many innovations introduced, every modern 
appliance and equipment to be found in any part of the 
world has been obtained for the school. 

There is no end to the novelties in the school. In the 
study of modern housekeeping, which will be taught in 
the domestic-science department, is a seven-room apart- 
ment fully furnished and apparently ready for occu- 
pancy. There are a pantry and kitchen, dining-room, 
living-room, bathroom, bedroom, nursery, and parlor. 

Classes of more than a dozen pupils will take turns in 
looking after and caring for the apartment. The place 
will be put in disorder and the students will have to 
straighten matters out, from putting the house in order 
to ordering a supply of groceries, meats, and provisions 
for the pantry. 

The second example is no less striking. This is a 
two-teacher high school in a rural community. There 
are two rooms but no comforts. The building is located 
on a wind-swept hill twelve minutes from the town 
proper. The outhouse buildings are in plain view, un- 
sightly, propped up to prevent falling, foul, and unwhole- 
some. The double seats in the schoolrooms are twenty- 
four years old. A car-load of cinders serves as the front- 
yard decoration. There are no flowers in any of the 
rooms. The chalk dust is one eighth of an inch deep 
on the edges of the blackboard. The faculty seem 



8 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

anaemic. The one male member is also superintendent 
of the elementary school. His salary is ninety-five 
dollars per month. He has tuberculosis. The other 
teacher is a woman who labors for sixty dollars per 
month. The school-day is one long struggle and grind 
to catch up with the schedule, each teacher being in 
charge of seven subjects. There is no home science in 
this schedule, although alleviation of home conditions 
might seem so necessary. Though the boys are fated to 
farm, the equipment for agriculture teaching consists 
of five tin cans. For the physics department there are 
six shelves three feet long. The library consists of one 
hundred and fifty-four old volumes with the backs worn 
or torn and soiled. Some of these were gifts, and others, 
with no pedagogical design in view, were " acquired" at 
a sale. There is no physical training. To a visitor 
there seems to be about this school, like a gloomy fog, 
an unreal, mystic, apathetic faith in the literal perform- 
ance of any sort of bookish task. 

Our actual high schools range, for the most part, some- 
where between these two extremes. As for its material 
equipment we have reason to hope that our modern 
high school life will be housed in a building which con- 
tains, in addition to the regular classrooms, gymnasiums, 
a swimming tank, physical and chemical laboratories, 
cooking, sewing, and millinery rooms, woodworking, 
forge and machine shops, drawing-rooms, a music-room, 
a room devoted to arts and crafts, and an assembly-room, 
or assembly-rooms, for study and learning under expert 
direction how to study. This arrangement of rooms 
presupposes the plan of making the high school, like 
the community, an aggregation of every sort of people 
doing every sort of work. 



SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION 9 

Contrasting Estimates of the High School as a Social 
Institution. — Beyond this disparity in material equip- 
ment we find equally striking the opposing views re- 
garding the functioning of the high school in our demo- 
cratic life. To one expert critic — "The high school is 
practically a class institution; a very small percentage 
of the school children continue their education so far. 
Neither is the culture of the town (because of it), as a 
whole, particularly impressive. The university man may 
well feel that he has been wandering about among the 
moonbeams, so few of the modern points of view and 
interests have seeped down into the intellectual life of 
the town (because of its high school). The annual 
course of lectures, managed by representatives of the 
ruling class, carefully side-tracks all the deeper questions 
of the time; ministers on patriotic subjects, naturalists 
and travellers, readers of popular plays make up the 
list of speakers. The library caters to an overwhelming 
demand for recent fiction. A woman's club discusses 
unfatiguing literary subjects. A quiet censorship is 
exercised over the public library. Anything that sug- 
gests the revolutionary or the obscene is sternly banned. 
It is considered better to err on the side of prudence. 
To an outsider the culture of the town seems at times 
to evince an almost unnecessary anxiety to avoid the 
controversial and the stimulating. So long as life is 
smooth and unperturbed, the people do not care whether 
it is particularly deep or not. And they are content to 
leave all controversial questions in the hands of their 
'best men.' " 

Another type of critic writes with equal ardor of its 
virtues. "The public high school has been called the 
'People's College.' This is a misnomer. It is immea- 



10 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

surably more than that. Closer to the people than the 
college can ever be, imbued with their ideals and per- 
meated with their spirit, it is more responsive to their 
needs and demands, and is therefore in a position to 
render directly a wider and more general social service. 

"Equal opportunity for all the children of all people 
is the watchword of the modern high school. As social 
and economic pressure is removed, the high school will 
provide this opportunity, in so far as it is possible for 
it to do so, through parallel and properly differentiated 
courses of instruction for the future farmer and mechanic 
and home maker as well as for the future doctor and 
lawyer and minister. And it will do this not by way of 
cheapening culture, but as a certain means of providing 
for culture a firmer and saner basis. Recognizing, as it 
does, the true dignity of labor and the true worth of 
manhood, the modern public high school embodies and 
reflects the composite spirit that dominates American 
life, and is at once the most genuinely democratic and 
the most thoroughly representative of the institutions 
yet devised and established by American genius." 

Here, again, a careful examination of most of our ex- 
isting high schools would justify us in striking a mean 
between those two extreme characterizations. 

New Era for High Schools. — Whatever stage of de- 
velopment our systems of secondary education may have 
reached, and whatever shortcomings or virtues our dif- 
ferent high schools may have, for the first time in our 
educational life as a nation we have consciously and in 
earnest set about the work of educating all our adoles- 
cents, male and female. For the first time we are calling 
with one voice for scientific and attested principles upon 
which to base our high school administration. For the 



SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION 11 

first time we are really seeing, not acknowledging, the 
socializing work to be done by the high school. Our 
ideals are shifting from the vague, general, externally im- 
posed standards of mental discipline and college prepa- 
ration to those translatable into twentieth-century in- 
dividual and social requirements: sound health and a 
health conscience; the ability to use the intellect upon 
the problems of ordinary social, civic, and commercial 
life; taste and the observance of the demands for the 
beautiful in both personal and community concerns; 
an economic sense which demands soundness and in- 
tegrity in business; a civic and moral consciousness 
which upholds and contributes to the community ethics 
upon which social progress depends; and a religious 
sense which assures loyalty to a permanent system of 
values. If our one and one fourth million adolescents 
now in American high schools acquire these things our 
nation's future is assured. If they do not, it is doomed. 
The demands are insistent and they are elemental. 

Typical High School Problems. — The problems of 
American secondary education are naturally multiply- 
ing. In addition to the traditional and generally ac- 
cepted problems of high school administration and the 
supervision of instruction, there is evolving what we 
may term a new conception of supervision and a new 
educational conscience in regard to the strictly social 
administration of high school work. The supervisory 
programme ahead requires that we work out and put in 
operation a system of general principles of adolescent 
pedagogy which is clearly based on the problems aris- 
ing out of the age of the high school student and his 
likely participation in the activities of his community. 
This done, we must refine the special pedagogies of all 



12 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

our constants in the curriculum and evolve from the 
same basic point of view workable pedagogies for the 
newly admitted branches. No old pedagogies can serve 
us here. This is a decade's programme. This field has 
been extensively treated in a former volume. 1 

The Meaning of "Social Administration.' * — Far be- 
yond this instructional programme, however, the social 
administration of our high schools presents alluring 
problems of a novel but critical character. These have 
to do, first, with more firmly establishing the conception 
of secondary education as a social enterprise as well as 
an instructional operation; second, with the institu- 
tional relationships which the high school must sustain 
to other and similar agencies of democracy; and, third, 
with those problems of the various social organizations 
within the high school body itself. Under each of these 
divisions pioneering treatises must be written, systematic 
experimentation carried on generally, and the socializ- 
ing function established as a matter of fact, not as an 
easy assent to a generality — established so that the 
complex industrial and moral currents of the modern 
world may interpret and not obscure the high school's 
mission. 

Signs of the General Awakening. — Heretofore, un- 
fortunately, we have been unaccustomed to think co- 
operatively upon these problems. Unlike the profession- 
alism, which has to an extent guided the development 
of lower and higher grades of education, the high 
school has meandered along somewhat aimlessly in 
academic paths and been strangely unmindful of the 
interesting and urgent work waiting to be done. Now, 

1 "High School Education," Charles Hughes Johnston and others. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1912. 



SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION 13 

exploitation of this waiting work has begun. The peo- 
ple, the patrons, the taxpayers, the citizens have caught 
the spirit of looking for results. The administrators of 
high schools, superintendents, principals, supervisors, 
and teachers are doing genuine curriculum thinking. 
These curriculum variations, adapted to student groups 
classified with reference to social and individual needs, 
are as naturally put in operation to-day as they were 
ignored twenty-five years ago. We accept the fact that 
the high school is a socializing institution. High school 
supervision, likewise, is being recognized as a problem 
itself which cannot be dismissed nor solved merely by 
the importation into the high school of principles dis- 
covered to apply elsewhere. With this is coming among 
high school teachers the professional spirit and con- 
sciousness which have been until recently so conspicuous 
by their absence. Standards are being recognized for 
high school teaching, and certification laws in most 
States look definitely toward a long-desired minimum 
standard for admittance into the high school teaching 
profession. Parallel with these encouraging tendencies 
has come the institutional recognition of the field of 
secondary education by colleges and universities. Sec- 
ondary education has itself become a department of 
study in these higher curriculums with an actual model 
high school as its laboratory. It constitutes a field for 
research where one may hope soon to be able to call in 
the sendees of experts and to have available results of 
scientific investigations. 

Surveys of State conditions for high school teaching 
show concrete problems in bewildering numbers and 
varieties, both administrative and pedagogical. The 
sign of progress is just this fact — that we can survey, 



14 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

name, and work definitely toward the ultimate solution 
of these problems. Every State is in some serious way 
devising a method and embedding it in statute for pro- 
viding free high school education for all its boys and 
girls. State recognition of its own obligation in the 
matter of high school education is of profound signifi- 
cance. Equally so is the modern relation of colleges 
and universities to high schools. Entrance require- 
ments are gradually coming to have a different educa- 
tional meaning. Instead of externally imposed infor- 
mational tests of arbitrarily chosen subject-matter, they 
now are looked upon as co-operative devices which may 
safely insure a reasonable standard of proficiency on the 
part of the graduating high school student, regardless of 
the subject-matter which was used to bring about this 
proficiency. College inspection of high schools has ac- 
cordingly changed its character where it existed before 
and become a co-operative administrative and super- 
visory work of making one educational institution more 
successfully articulate with another. Where entrance 
examinations are still in operation they have changed 
their character correspondingly. 

Era for the Differentiation of Types of High Schools. 
— With this impetus to become self-orienting, the Amer- 
ican high schools have forsaken the earlier ideal of uni- 
formity and conformity to a standard type academically 
conceived for them by outsiders. Hundreds of high 
schools now have their own individuality, as, for different 
reasons, Grand Rapids, Louisville, or Richmond, Ind., 
to say nothing of the industrial and agricultural and 
commercial variations of the type. An almost an- 
alogous issue to that of separate kinds of high schools 
is that of the differentiation and multiplication of cur- 



SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION 15 

riculums within the single high school itself. With 
these artistic, domestic, and otherwise vocational color- 
ings for our different curriculums, or high school plants, 
as the case may be, have come inevitably the related 
human obligations. We are face to face with these 
personal problems of vocational guidance and the some- 
what less frequently formulated but probably more 
fundamental one of avocational guidance. Related in 
turn to these problems, which must find expression 
finally through some systematic and approved method 
of high school administration, comes the question of 
how, in defined procedure, one is to set about moral in- 
struction and training which will enable high school 
students to possess and obey a twentieth-century moral 
conscience. 

In short, the question of secondary education is 
uniquely one of how most adequately to formulate a 
working conception of the high school organization, how 
to extend its reach to all our adolescents, and how to 
refine our procedure in accordance with such ultimate 
purposes. The prime issue is shifting from the literal 
but important secondary question of extension over 
four years or five or six years, including upper grades, 
or six, including first two years of college; and shifting 
from the impersonal and more or less superficial problem 
of how to direct the academic procedure of imparting 
some choice bits of information from stores precious by 
virtue of mellowness of age to that of training the 
students' powers as social usage and our common life 
demand. High school education, however it may differ 
from other grades of education, is not, in our civiliza- 
tion, primarily a luxury, academic or otherwise. It is 
in the broad social sense a necessity. Fortunately, it at 



16 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

length burdens the community conscience and has be- 
come the measure of our educational democracy. 

Plan of the Book. — The authors of the following pages, 
working under the inspiriting conviction that our Amer- 
ican high school is thus surely and rapidly becoming 
conscious of its mission, have set forth, in as clear and 
simple fashion as possible, instances and theories of 
high school activities in this widening field of social 
usefulness and influence. This volume represents an 
attempt to make it easier to think naturally of the high 
school as the Temple of our Democracy, with its halls 
an art museum (Chapter XXVIII); its debating teams 
and supporting audiences real though miniature forums 
(Chapter XIX); its playgrounds and athletic fields 
ethical as well as hygienic laboratories (Chapters XVII 
and XXVII) ; its classrooms meetings where co-opera- 
tive investigations, live discussions, and the application 
of knowledge to living are carried on as a matter of 
course (Chapters VIII, IX, X, and XI) ; and its student 
organizations the wholesome expression of the best or- 
ganized student sentiment (Chapters XVI, XVII, and 
XVIII). That this is not a dream the reader has but 
to study, with his normal imagination alert, the sugges- 
tions and doctrines which are contained in the follow- 
ing chapters. 

"High School Education," 1 the forerunner of the 
present volume, limited its field to the special peda- 
gogies of all the subjects generally offered in the modern 
high school programme of studies. Only those admin- 
istrative and supervisory problems involved in such dis- 
tinctly pedagogical questions received separate chapter 
treatment. 

x By Charles Hughes Johnston and others. Scribners, 1912. 



SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION 17 

There is an even more urgent need for a co-operative 
attempt by specialists to interpret the modern Amer- 
ican high school in its broad social setting. This seemed 
to require specific treatments differentiated somewhat 
as the titles of the thirty chapters of this book indicate. 
The first few chapters, Part I, develop broadly the in- 
stitutional relationships of the high school, and the next 
division of chapters, Part II, is concerned with certain 
more " particularized" relationships. The succeeding 
third set of chapters, Part III, treats of certain definite 
internal expressions of the social nature and socializing 
function of the high school. The concluding chapters, 
Part IV, somewhat heterogeneous, unavoidably, deal 
with those clear problems of the high school which, al- 
though genuine enough and well recognized by prac- 
tical schoolmen, nevertheless present difficulties in the 
matter of logical chapter sequence. 

This first chapter, Introduction, and the second chap- 
ter, Part I, establish the new setting for the modern 
high school and suggest promising fields for scientific 
exploration and systematic experimentation. Chapter 
III goes into the whole interesting field of different 
State movements looking toward providing without 
exception, by ingenious systems of taxation, high school 
opportunity under favorable and even encouraging con- 
ditions for all, and Chapter IV treats of the " scientific 
management" of high schools as "big business" enter- 
prises. Chapters V, VI, and VII specify existing and 
desirable modes of articulation of our idealized high 
school with other fundamental agencies of civilization. 

Part II contains more specialized treatments of the 
plans for more delicate relationships which the high 
school must foster and develop. Chapters VIII, IX, 



18 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

X, and XI, in a sort of sequential relationship of treat- 
ment, attempt to make both learning and methods of 
learning, information and the art of getting information, 
a more social and living procedure than it is ordinarily 
taken to be. For years Dewey and those inspired by 
him and by other great educational thinkers have been 
laying the thought foundations for a system of social 
educational philosophy. Nothing to the editor so suc- 
cessfully illustrates the fundamental thesis of Dewey 
as does Miss Williams's account of the drama of an 
actual classroom (Chapter IX). We assent to the 
theory of socializing all instruction, but without such a 
fascinating, realistic account of the process, carried 
through for us to as fascinating details, before our very 
eyes as it were, we scarcely become thrilled with the 
course our theory takes. These four chapters, em- 
phasizing the socializing possibilities of intellectual work 
in the school and the relationships into which such ac- 
tivities involve our high school, naturally group them- 
selves with the problems of Chapters XII and XIII. 
In this section of the volume the original plan contem- 
plated insertion of chapters upon each of these topics: 
"The Civic and Social Duties of High School Teachers,'' 
"The Relation of the High School to the Home," and 
"The Relation of the High School Student to the Ethical 
Standards of the Actual Professions and Trades of the 
Community." Judge Ben Lindsay had contracted for 
the first of these, Principal William McAndrew, of the 
Washington Irving High School of New York, for the 
second, and Professor Matthew Wilson, of Park Col- 
lege, Missouri, for the third. Unfortunate obstacles pre- 
vented the intending authors of these contributions from 
carrying out their original intentions. These proposed 



SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION 19 

chapters are mentioned to indicate supplementary topics 
which may well be taken up by teachers who use 
the volume as a text. However, the topics of most of 
these proposed chapters have received incidental treat- 
ment in the other chapters, particularly in the chapters 
by Grice, Olinger, and J. B. Davis. 

Part III contains definite and separate chapter treat- 
ments of these differentiated but organized high school 
activities which make "The Social Administration of 
the Modern High School" so promising and fascinating 
a field for study and experimentation. Part IV is con- 
cerned throughout with those far-reaching problems of 
future high school administration. Most of them are 
for the first time included among the specific duties of 
the high school administrator. They are genuine and 
urgent ones, however, and will in time be unescapable 
and accepted as a matter of course, but, also, as a 
mighty democratic privilege and possibility. 



PART I 

THE INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS 
OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 

CHAPTER II 

HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 
David Snedden, Ph.D. 

COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION FOR THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS 

High School Central Agency in American Education. 

— The central agency in American secondary education 
is the general high school, receiving as pupils young per- 
sons who have substantially completed an elementary 
school course, and who range in age from fourteen to 
eighteen years. The education given is designed to be 
primarily "general," "liberal," or "cultural" in its 
nature. Only incidental consideration is given as yet 
to vocational education, although an exception to this 
statement might be made as to preparation for a few 
commercial callings. There will generally be found in 
the high school a few students preparing for entrance to 
college or other higher institutions. But, for the large 
majority of pupils, the high school education is the last 
systematic training which they will receive. 

Besides the public high school, it is proper to include 
as agencies of secondary education private schools 
fitting pupils for college, other private schools designed 

20 



EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 21 

to meet existing special demands for religious education 
or education under the conditions of a boarding-school, 
private commercial schools, and also various public and 
private vocational or quasi-vocational schools offering 
industrial, agricultural, or household-arts education. 
The words "High School" will, therefore, in this chapter 
be employed in the broadest sense — that is, as including 
not merely the general public high school, strictly so 
called, but the numerous varying forms of public and 
private secondary education, including those whose 
ostensible aims are vocational. 

In proportion to population, and taking account of 
relative ages of pupils, the United States has more 
secondary schools and a larger number of secondary 
school pupils than any other country in the world. In 
1911-12 the attendance in public high schools was 
1,105,000, or somewhat over 100 to each 10,000 of popu- 
lation; while in private schools of strictly secondary 
character were approximately 141,000 more. To those 
should be added at least 150,000 more who were attend- 
ing commercial schools, industrial schools, and other 
schools offering education of an essentially secondary 
character. 

The development of the public high school has been 
especially rapid. In 1889-90 there were in public high 
schools only 220,000 pupils, or 36 to each 10,000 of popu- 
lation. It is evident, therefore, that high school at- 
tendance has increased during the last twenty-five years 
approximately three times as fast as population. 

American communities, as a rule, take much pride in 
their public high schools. The finest school buildings 
are erected for their use. These are often monumental 
in character and more costly than any other public 



22 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

edifice. Generous appropriations are usually made for 
equipment and up-keep. 

High School Teachers. — High school teachers are 
now, almost everywhere, college graduates. During 
the last quarter of a century, owing to the establishment 
of departments of education in various colleges and uni- 
versities, an increasing proportion of high school teachers 
have received at least partial professional training for 
their work. Political and personal considerations have 
in recent years little weight as affecting the appoint- 
ment and tenure of high school teachers and principals. 
Their status in the community is ever assuming more of 
a professional character. 

Increase in Attendance. — The secondary school was 
originally designed for the children of the richer and 
more cultured families in the community. But the high 
school of the twentieth century is a free school, open to 
all children who have the ability to profit from its 
courses and attended by nearly all of these who are not 
under the insistent necessity of giving their time to the 
earning of a livelihood. There are but few parents now 
who do not have the ambition and the ability to give 
their brightest children one or more years of high school 
education. 

Vocational secondary schools, now in process of de- 
velopment in several States, will provide in some degree 
for certain groups of young people who are indifferent 
as to obtaining a general high school education. There 
is every reason to believe that during the next genera- 
tion, as better and more varied opportunities for secon- 
dary education develop, attendance will continue to 
increase in the same ratio as during the last quarter of 
a century. 



EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 23 

It is easily apparent, then, that secondary educa- 
tion represents a social enterprise of vast and rapidly 
growing proportions. It makes a profound appeal to 
the American people. There exists, evidently, a far- 
reaching and enduring demand for the efficient education 
of adolescent young people. Local communities and 
States are favorably disposed toward public high schools 
of a general and of a vocational character, while numer- 
ous persons are still willing to contribute generously 
toward various forms of private secondary education. 

From the standpoint of society at large, what are the 
reasons for the existing public interest in secondary 
education? It is obviously in part due to the growing 
prosperity of the American people and to rising standards 
of living and culture. A constantly increasing propor- 
tion of families are able to afford something more than 
an elementary education for their children. 

Faith of Public in High School. — A more important 
cause is to be found in the faith which Americans pos- 
sess as to the social utility of education. Secondary edu- 
cation and college education are now rarely regarded as 
being primarily ornamental — luxuries and decorations for 
the leisure class. In every community will be found a 
considerable number of persons who hold firmly to the 
conviction that a prolonged education during the impres- 
sionable years of adolescence is valuable for the indi- 
vidual and will prove serviceable for the society of which 
he is a part. 

But it is obvious that this faith, however strong, 
does not serve to define, in any specific way, the forms 
of education best designed to serve the ends desired. 
Often, under its influence, undue importance is attached 
to the historic instruments of secondary education — the 



24 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

subjects of study which, because they once possessed 
direct instrumental value, secondary schools formerly 
found highly valuable, but which are now taught mainly 
because of the ease with which they can be presented. 
In other instances this faith tends in recent years to 
produce an intense interest in those phases of training 
which deal directly and purposefully with the needs of 
modern life — the needs manifested by young people for 
more complete instruction in hygiene, in the respon- 
sibilities of citizenship, in religion, and in personal con- 
duct. But this interest is, as yet, vague and indeter- 
minate as to means and methods. In some modern 
instances the weight of this educational faith may be 
thrown toward vocational training, as individuals and 
communities begin to realize, on the one hand, the 
importance, as an asset in citizenship, of the possession 
of sufficient training to enable each individual easily to 
earn a living, and, on the other, the great obstacles 
offered by modern industry and modern life to efficient 
vocational training, except in schools especially designed 
for that purpose. 

Functions of High School. — A few of the functions 
of the secondary school are quite tangible. Pupils are 
fitted for colleges and other higher agencies of learning 
largely along the lines designated by these institutions. 
Commercial courses now give a limited number of boys 
and girls the training, at least in part, required for 
certain clerical and commercial pursuits. 

Other functions now performed are less definite but 
no less real. Attendance on a secondary school is in 
many cases the only alternative to idleness or irregular 
employment. It is certain that the steady occupation of 
an adolescent youth in studies which are not so exacting 



EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 25 

as to impair physical growth saves him from the de- 
moralizing effects of non-employment. During the high 
school period students are commonly surrounded by rela- 
tively wholesome social influences and are induced to 
share in physical exercises contributing to bodily de- 
velopment to an extent that is not usually practicable 
for a person not participating in school life. The con- 
tributions thus made to the fuller social and physical 
development of the individual are real and of great 
importance. 

Actual Value of Studies. — With regard to the actual 
value of the studies pursued, and for the- administration 
and conduct of which the school primarily exists, there 
is as yet less certainty. The historic conception of the 
secondary school involved primarily the notion of an 
educational agency making certain offerings, the actual 
value of which the school did not undertake to guaran- 
tee. For suitable considerations, the school gave instruc- 
tion in Latin, Greek, mathematics, and other subjects 
as demanded. It undertook to prepare pupils to pass 
college-entrance examinations as these were set up by 
the higher institutions. Where sufficient demands de- 
veloped, it gave instruction in French, German, book- 
keeping, shorthand, and manual training. The historic 
secondary school, while having great faith in the educa- 
tional value of these subjects of study, rarely undertook 
to evaluate them in terms of any form of social utility, 
being content to satisfy what seemed to be a persistent 
public demand. 

The secondary school has, obviously, always offered 
to young persons who are naturally disposed toward 
intellectual activities some opportunities to gratify and 
to develop these interests. The instructors have often 



26 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

been inspiring and personally helpful to students of this 
character; while the libraries and other resources of the 
schools have made intellectual activity easily possible. 
It has been historically true, therefore, that a large pro- 
portion of the persons who have attained to intellectual 
leadership, and who early manifested strong inclinations 
in that direction, have found in the secondary school 
opportunities of a helpful kind, even apart from the 
actual studies pursued. Young persons of exceptional 
native ability, and especially those having good oppor- 
tunities for culture and training in their homes, have 
readily accepted the programme of instruction offered by 
secondary schools, and brought to their studies such 
valuable personal resources as to render certain some 
sort of satisfactory outcome in respect to the establish- 
ment of intellectual interests and the development of 
intellectual powers. A large proportion of these young 
persons who are so gifted by nature as to render it prob- 
able that they will in .all probability become leaders 
have naturally gravitated into secondary schools. The 
secondary school, therefore, has performed a large social 
service when it has selected and given encouragement to 
these persons, even though its programme of instruction 
may have had little distinguishable bearing on their 
future achievements. 

But for the large majority of secondary-school pupils 
who possess only average ability and but moderate power 
of intellectual initiative the actual value of the studies 
pursued has been hitherto largely a matter of faith. 
The records of exceptional pupils have served to inspire 
in parents the hope and belief that for their children of 
mediocre ability, also, the school would be able to do 
what it had appeared so easily to do for others. Yet 



EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 27 

the more carefully the high school curriculum as a means 
of efficient education is studied the less certain do edu- 
cators become as to its actual useful functioning. 

In general, then, secondary education, as historically 
organized and as enormously developed during recent 
decades, has measurably justified itself as a social enter- 
prise by creating opportunities for social and physical 
development for a large proportion of its pupils, by 
meeting the specific educational needs of special groups, 
by discovering, inspiring, and generally assisting those 
of exceptional native ability, and by developing and 
diffusing a faith in prolonged education. The certain 
achievements of the American system of secondary edu- 
cation along these lines, combined with the growing 
capacity and disposition of parents to prolong the edu- 
cation of their children, account for the prominent place 
now held by the public high school and other agencies 
operating in the same general field. 

Results Unsatisfactory. — But in spite of the rapid 
growth of secondary education and especially of the 
public high school, it is a matter of common observation 
that results are far from satisfactory, and criticisms of 
a fundamental character are frequent and positive. 
There is a wide-spread conviction that the programmes 
and processes of secondary education are essentially 
traditional, that there has been no satisfactory effort to 
evaluate them in terms of modern social demand or 
need, and that the scientific spirit is as yet insufficiently 
in evidence among those who make the commonly ac- 
cepted programmes and direct the prevailing practices 
in these schools. 

Demand for a More Vital Education. — A public de- 
mand, not always articulate perhaps, for a more vital 



28 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

and more " functioning " education prevails. Citizens 
no less than serious students of education are becoming 
distrustful of customary practices which rest largely on 
faith and hope. Some historic and much-cherished ed- 
ucational dogmas, especially as to the superior merit of 
the classical academic subjects for purposes of "mental 
training" and as to the comparative unserviceableness of 
vocational training are now being seriously questioned. 
The departments of Education in American colleges and 
universities, most of which have come into active exis- 
tence during the last twenty-five years, are contributing 
to the popular unrest through their disposition to ascer- 
tain scientifically the actual aims and achievements of 
all forms of education which have hitherto rested largely 
on custom. 

This demand has been reinforced by the contribu- 
tions which have recently been made to the general and 
popular conceptions of the educational possibilities of 
adolescent youth. On the one hand, the study of the 
psychology of adolescents and, on the other, the devel- 
opment of more generous and richer conceptions of 
education as a factor in modern social economy have 
aided in giving us a vision of the more purposeful, 
more scientific, and more flexible secondary education 
which is among the possibilities of the future. 

Reorganized Secondary Education Based on Knowl- 
edge of Broader Social Economy. — Recognizing that 
the present is essentially a period of transition, espe- 
cially in secondary education, it should obviously be the 
object of each constructive student of the subject to 
forecast as definitely as practicable the probable future 
lines of development of the various phases of that edu- 
cation. Clearly, as regards its aims, a reorganized 



EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 29 

secondary education must be based more and more 
definitely upon a sound knowledge of the broader social 
economy; that is, of the processes by which society is, 
with increasing purposefulness, working toward a more 
satisfactory state of well-being for human beings, in- 
dividually and collectively. It is also certain that the 
material and methods to be employed in realizing these 
aims must in larger measure than hitherto be founded 
upon a knowledge of the learning capacities and learn- 
ing processes of adolescent youth. 

Sociology and Psychology. — It is true that sociology 
and the kindred social sciences upon which a scientific 
social economy must be built are yet in very immature 
stages of development; and it must be confessed that 
psychology also, notwithstanding the attention it has 
received in recent years, can yet contribute but little of 
positive suggestion to the organization of the material 
and methods of secondary education. 

Precedents in Other Fields of Applied Science and 
Art. — Nevertheless, in spite of the unsatisfactory con- 
dition of some of the sciences from which secondary 
instruction and training as fields of practice should be 
able to derive useful materials in the shape of principles, 
laws, and explanations, much may yet be done of a 
scientific and constructive nature by studying, without 
prejudice, the individual educational problems that may 
be recognized and isolated for consideration. In other 
fields of human effort it is obvious that this has been 
done with excellent results, and educators possessed 
of the scientific spirit will more and more tend to do the 
same in education. 

In the development of the arts — such, for example, 
as the working of metals, the making of explosives, 



30 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the manufacture of fabrics, the building of bridges, the 
healing of disease, and the tilling of the soil, wherein 
advanced methods, resting on definite scientific knowl- 
edge, now largely obtain — there were formerly long 
periods when substantial progress was made mainly by 
methods which were essentially scientific, although as 
yet such sciences as physics, chemistry, and biology had 
not reached a stage where positive contributions to 
these arts could be obtained from them. It is, in the 
same way, even now possible to employ the methods 
and spirit of scientific inquiry — freedom from biassing 
preconceptions, analysis, exact (and quantitative) de- 
scription, and experimentation — to the problems of 
secondary education, notwithstanding that sociology 
and psychology can as yet render little direct service. 

In some cases experience and general knowledge have 
evolved to the point where results of a fairly definite 
character as affecting secondary education seem even 
now to be available. Several examples of comparatively 
modern development may be cited. 

Physical Education. — Within recent years the sub- 
ject of physical education has been receiving unusual 
attention. The conviction has grown that by system- 
atic training and instruction it is possible to promote 
physical growth and strength, to improve and conserve 
health, and so to instruct in the knowledge and ideals 
of physical well-being as to make these results persist 
for the life of the individual. But it was long questioned 
whether physical education was a legitimate function of 
the secondary school. True, many secondary schools 
were also schools of residence, and consequently the 
play, rest, and other features of the daily regimen of the 
pupils required consideration, for disciplinary, if for no 



EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 31 

other, reasons. But in general it has not long been 
held that physical education constituted an essential 
and legitimate division of organized secondary educa- 
tion. Physical education is important, it has been ad- 
mitted, but it was contended that it belonged to the 
home and to other agencies than the school. 

Clearly, it should now be possible, in the light of con- 
temporary experience, to study this particular phase of 
secondary education with some approach to sound 
methods. If it be once admitted that it is essentially 
the function of the secondary school to give to a prede- 
termined class of adolescents such systematic education 
as will be most needed for sound living, and which other 
private or public agencies cannot give satisfactorily, 
then, as regards the recognition of physical education as 
a phase of secondary education, certain quite specific 
problems are presented for examination. To what ex- 
tent for all adolescents or for definable groups of them 
is any one of various types of physical education a 
valuable thing, both as regards the usefulness of the in- 
dividual to society and his usefulness to himself? To 
what extent does such education possess social value 
greater or less than that possessed by other phases of 
education which might have to be displaced if physical 
education is to receive due attention and time? Are 
the means and methods of such education such as ren- 
der it practicable for the secondary school as now con- 
stituted? To what extent and in what respects must 
the secondary school reorganize its historic structure if 
it is seriously to embrace the new purpose? 

It is obvious that already public sentiment, if not 
public opinion, is forcing a study of this question and, 
as well, modifications of historic practice into secondary 



32 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

schools. Control and direction of athletics; systematic 
instruction in hygiene; improvement, through sugges- 
tion, of the physical environment of the pupil at home and 
in the school — all these, however fragmentary in organi- 
zation and variable in treatment, nevertheless now rep- 
resent fairly well accepted phases of physical education. 
The contemporary demand is sufficient, at least, to 
suggest to all students of the public high school the de- 
sirability of systematic inquiry as to the place, scope, 
and methods of sound physical education in a programme 
of secondary education. 

Vocational Education. — A similar situation is to be 
found in connection with what is now called vocational 
education. The conviction has almost suddenly de- 
veloped in recent years that society should somehow 
guarantee to its young people provision for systematic 
training toward the exercise of a calling or vocation. 
Deserving especial consideration is that large majority 
of young people who must embark upon self-support 
between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. The recent 
progress of the study of society has clearly shown that, 
excepting in rare instances, the vocational training of 
these young people has hitherto of necessity been left 
largely to the ill-regulated efforts of private agencies. 
Public interest in vocational education has hitherto 
manifested itself chiefly in the efforts of philanthropists 
and others to provide vocational schools for destitute or 
defective young persons. Appreciation of the desirable 
results to be attained by educating apprentices has oc- 
casionally induced large employers to establish special 
trade or technical schools. Only the wider vision of the 
modern social economy reveals the comparative futility 
of these partial efforts and brings into relief the enormous 



EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 33 

social need of vocational training, under some form of 
public control and support, if the larger well-being of 
young persons is to be assured. 

We now no longer question the need of vocational 
education. Nor do we now dispute as to the desirability 
of its public control and support if the machinery of our 
educational organization is adequate to its administra- 
tion. Within a few years educational leaders everywhere 
have passed on to the consideration of the practical 
problems of publicly managed vocational schools. Ways 
and means, methods and processes, now claim chief at- 
tention. It appeared to some that vocational educa- 
tion was an entirely new and, as it were, alien type of 
training which, if carried on in proximity with general 
or liberal education, tended to nullify the good effects of 
the latter. Others of limited vision early insisted that 
vocational education possessed a value far transcending 
that of the historic school education and should, wher- 
ever possible, be made to supersede the latter. 

A saner view now prevails. It is clear to every cool 
student of the subject that vocational education is 
simply one phase or type of education, that it has legiti- 
mate place for pupils of appropriate age and power, 
and that the question of its conjunction with or separa- 
tion from liberal education is essentially one of admin- 
istrative expediency. It is now clearly practicable for 
any one to study in a genuinely scientific manner the 
problems of vocational education as a phase of modern 
social economy and to evaluate and place that form of 
education in a complete scheme of publicly supported 
schools. This is not only true so far as the aims of 
vocational education are concerned; we are rapidly ap- 
proaching a time when, in a scientific way, we shall be 



34 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

able to inquire into the most successful methods and 
means of such training and by successive stages improve 
the quality of the work offered in vocational schools. 

Social Education Not Consciously Developed. — In 
other quarters we have before us to-day a somewhat 
similar situation as regards that kind of education, the 
controlling purpose of which is to form those particular 
habits, to inspire those particular ideals, and to give 
that particular knowledge which contributes positively 
and effectively to the betterment of the relationships of 
individuals, whether these be on the plane of every-day 
morals and manners or on those levels of citizenship 
relating to the exercise of the suffrage and the perform- 
ance of the more complex social duties. Education to 
this end — variously called moral, ethical, civic, or social 
education, and appropriate to the demands of a dem- 
ocratic civilization inspired with a scientific attitude 
toward life — has not yet found conscious development 
anywhere. 

It is true that the secondary school, the college, and 
even the elementary school constantly assert that one 
of their chief purposes, if not their controlling purpose, 
is education for citizenship. An examination of the 
means and methods employed, however, will disclose 
the fact that nowhere are programmes or processes con- 
sciously and purposefully adjusted to this alleged end. 
In other words, in so far as social education as a name 
is held by our educational institutions, it operates usu- 
ally as a vision or hope or article of faith and almost 
nowhere as a conscious purpose controlled by scientific 
methods. 

But modern social economy clearly reveals the need, 
especially under the conditions of modern social de- 



EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 35 

velopment, of a purposeful social education. Our knowl- 
edge of psychology certainly reveals its possibilities. We 
know that at successive periods in history a social edu- 
cation adapted to the needs of particular times and 
places has been elaborated, as witness the education 
under various military despotisms, under religious and 
crafts guilds, and in primitive republics. The general 
ends of social education, therefore, can to-day be stated 
in terms more or less scientific. We have reached the 
stage when experimental studies, classes, and schools 
are possible. 

Need of a More Purposeful Cultural Education. — 
Finally, we may note that in the large fields of education 
pre-empted by the historic secondary school, namely, 
culture and mental discipline, it is no longer necessary 
for us to rely merely upon the faiths and dogmas that 
have grown up about historic school practices. Mental 
discipline in its various phases presents a series of 
tangible aims which are certainly capable of realiza- 
tion within limits, although probably to no such degree 
and by no such means as educators have often too easily 
assumed. Culture, too, that vague and at times ap- 
parently evanescent goal of education, should be recog- 
nized as being at bottom an essentially composite affair, 
and a systematic study of the various processes by which 
it is to be achieved is certainly possible. There are 
good reasons for supposing that a part of the obvious 
failure of the modern high school system as a " function- 
ing" educational agency is due to the fact that even in 
the fields of culture and mental discipline — those which 
it had primarily pre-empted for itself — the high school 
fails to give valid and tangible results in return for the 
time, money, and devotion invested in it. There can 



36 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

be no question but that a careful analytical study of 
such educational purposes as the production of specific 
forms of mental training and of specific phases of culture 
can be made. i 

A Reorganization Needed. — Consideration of the con- 
ditions surrounding contemporary secondary school edu- 
cation clearly indicates that within the near future there 
must be a reorganization of the stated aims and processes 
involved in such education. To this end certain steps 
or stages of operation are of fundamental importance. 

In the first place, the secondary school must discon- 
tinue its historic practice of describing its aims in terms 
of the mastery of subject-matter. It is necessary that 
there be enforced a recognition of the fact that the 
mastery of the subject-matter is, after all, but an educa- 
tional means toward the attainment of higher and more 
real social utilities. 

In the second place, the secondary school must be 
able to formulate its aims in terms of concrete social 
utilities as these are defined and expressed by modern 
social economy. The third consideration is that the 
extent to which concrete social utilities shall be set up 
as aims and the scope of the education designed to 
attain these ends shall be interpreted in terms of the 
needs and possibilities of various groups of young people 
able to profit therefrom. 

Finally, having defined aims and the scope to which 
each one of these is to be developed in practice, the 
secondary education of the future must deliberately set 
to work to devise by analysis and experimental methods 
the means and methods of realizing these aims. 

Traditional Subjects Discussed in Regard to Their 
Social Utility. — The foregoing demands suggest certain 



EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 37 

programmes that may be here tentatively described for 
the sake of discussion. It has long been apparent to 
careful students that some of the so-called traditional 
subjects of secondary education have no direct utility 
in themselves, and hence it has become a favorite prac- 
tice on the part of the advocates of these subjects to 
defend them on the ground of derived or accessory 
values of a more or less mystical nature. It is freely 
acknowledged that the ability to speak or to write Latin, 
or even freely to translate it, can have little or no sig- 
nificance for the large majority of educated persons in 
the twentieth century. But the proponents of that 
subject have long ago ceased to urge its value for these 
purposes, and have resorted to vague and mystical ex- 
planations as to its value in promoting more efficient 
expression in English, in promoting knowledge of past 
eras of civilization, and in making for mental discipline. 
The time has surely arrived when each one of these 
alleged social utilities should be clearly defined, and the 
actual contributions of the extensive study of Latin to 
each one should be made a matter of experimental test. 

Similarly, the American secondary school has long 
given front rank to the study of algebra. The place 
and intensive character of this study have long been 
matters of tradition. When, however, the specific ques- 
tion is asked as to why the study of algebra should be 
pursued by girl pupils in the high schools, it becomes 
readily apparent that there is no rational ground for 
recognizing any value in this subject as an end in itself. 
In other words, a knowledge of algebra by and of itself 
is not a social utility for girl pupils so far as available 
evidence shows. 

But, following historic practice, the advocates of this 



38 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

subject now insist that it has some derivative value in 
training mental powers, in giving insight into the world 
of practical affairs, or in promoting one form or another 
of practical efficiency. All of these reasons are still 
shrouded in the language of educational mysticism, and 
quite fail to appeal to the scientific temper. 

The foregoing may represent, possibly, somewhat ex- 
treme examples taken from the present secondary 
school programme. Nevertheless, in a large degree, the 
implied criticisms given above apply to substantially 
every subject of secondary school curriculum. The 
knowledge of ancient history as imparted in an ordinary 
course of that subject cannot be defined as a social 
utility. The same is true of the study of physics as 
ordinarily pursued or the study of chemistry. It is 
well known that the defenders of French and German 
as secondary school subjects have long debated vigor- 
ously as to the educational value of these subjects. 

Dominant Social Utilities. — The second proposition 
given above was that we have now reached a period 
when the secondary school must discover ways and 
means of studying and expressing its purposes and the 
scope and character of the desirable methods to be em- 
ployed in achieving these purposes in terms of definite 
and tangible social utilities. Here it must be confessed 
that modern social economy does not as yet give the 
help that perhaps we have a right to expect. Social 
utilities are of almost innumerable kinds. As now de- 
scribed, they tend to fuse into vague wholes. But it is 
easily possible to recognize at least four large groups of 
social utilities which comprise almost the entire field of 
possible educational effort. These groups are: (a) 
Those social utilities pertaining to physical well-being; 



EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 39 

(b) those pertaining to vocational efficiency; (c) those 
pertaining to civic or social capacity; and, finally, (d) 
those relating to personal culture. 

Each one of these groups may be analyzed into a large 
number of constituent elements, any one of which may 
to an appropriate degree be made an end of systematic 
school education. 

Need of Flexible Programme. — The third principle, 
namely, that the complete programme of secondary edu- 
cation must, to an indefinite extent, be flexible, so as to 
present a wide range of opportunities for young persons 
varying as to native capacity, acquired interests, and 
economic possibilities in life, has already found some 
acceptance in contemporary secondary education. But 
the flexibility now existing, as manifested in alternative 
and elective courses, is not intelligently based upon a 
due recognition of the needs of definable groups of pupils ; 
it is a hit-or-miss affair, undirected, and essentially 
opportunist in character. When we shall be obliged to 
develop a general programme of secondary education 
more extensive than that which now exists and so varied 
as to include the opportunities for vocational and social 
education as well as more extended facilities than now 
exist for cultural training, it can readily be seen that in 
large schools the opportunities for providing individual 
programmes of instruction purposefully adapted to the 
needs of well-defined groups of pupils will be almost 
endless. 

It is not practicable to give here more than a few il- 
lustrations of these possibilities. One conspicuous fea- 
ture is to be found in the further development of a 
tendency now beginning to manifest itself to look on 
the age of sixteen as a suitable time for the termination 



40 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

of the secondary education of a considerable number of 
young persons whose economic and other opportunities 
necessitate an early entrance on productive life. Be- 
tween fourteen and sixteen, for some persons at least, 
secondary education should be predominantly vocational. 
For others it might well be almost exclusively cultural, in 
the expectation that after the age of sixteen participation 
in productive industry will offer sufficient opportunities 
for vocational training. At the present time no sub- 
stantial recognition is held out to pupils who are capable 
of completing, with a fair degree of credit, two years of 
secondary education, but for whom a four years' pro- 
gramme is, in view of their economic or other limita- 
tions, practically out of the question. 

Again, in connection with part-time vocational edu- 
cation, extending, among older pupils, into systematic 
evening instruction, are also to be found possibilities of 
flexible programmes of cultural as well as vocational 
education. A well-developed secondary school system 
may be expected to offer large opportunities not only to 
those having an abundance of time to take advantage of 
them but also to persons circumscribed by the neces- 
sities of daily occupation. Physical education, special 
forms of aesthetic or cultural education, and civic train- 
ing may well enter into all these programmes. 

It is easily apparent, however, that, unless the ex- 
pansion and the diversification of secondary education 
can be carried out in a systematic way on the basis of 
methods carefully analyzed and subjected to experi- 
mental tests, educational chaos may follow. It is un- 
questionably true that vast sums of money are now 
being wasted in promoting forms of secondary education 
that are barren of substantial results. The enthusiasm 



EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 41 

of a people possessed of great faith in education and 
eager to meet the responsibilities of democratic govern- 
ment may easily lead to an enormous expenditure of 
time, energy, and money in fruitless effort, unless the 
principles of scientific efficiency can be progressively 
applied. This must then be essentially a primary char- 
acteristic of future secondary education as a social 
enterprise if it is to conform to our ideals of democracy, 
social economy, and science. It must be an education 
largely characterized by purposefulness, by a clear dis- 
crimination as to the social utilities to be obtained, and 
by a comprehensive and scientific mastery of the means 
and methods by which valuable results are to be realized. 



CHAPTER III 

THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 

James Howard Hanger, A.M. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, ROSSVILLE, KANS. 

Some Shortcomings of the American High School. — 

The present wide-spread movement to give free secondary 
education throughout the United States is of great 
social significance. This movement indicates the pres- 
ence of a more truly democratic spirit in education. It 
is the direct outgrowth of the idea of equality upon 
which our government rests and is the spontaneous ex- 
pression of our nineteenth and twentieth century social 
reconstruction. The public school is the means by which 
a free democracy perpetuates itself. Unless this mech- 
anism — the school — be accessible to all it falls short of 
the needs and the demands of a truly democratic society. 
Perhaps no one to-day who is at all in touch with the 
public school situation would maintain that the school 
system is accomphshing what we have a right to expect 
it to accomplish. To state that our public schools are 
the best possible schools would be to display one's utter 
ignorance of the conditions existing in them, no less 
than of the possibilities of the public school as evidenced 
by such countries as Germany. But too few educators 
even have seen the underlying principles of our public 
educational system in their full significance. We have 

42 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 43 

taken for granted the fact that the schools are providing 
the means for a broad equality for all who come within 
their doors, and few have looked deeply enough to be 
able to criticise, and too few of these have had the 
temerity to raise their voices in protest at the failures 
disclosed. The incompetency of superintendents, prin- 
cipals, and teachers of the whole school system, which 
permits an appalling waste of our social assets, certainly 
should challenge attention. The hundreds and even 
thousands of boys and girls who thus drop out annually 
are hopelessly lost to the best in our civilization. 

A discussion of the various shortcomings of the Amer- 
ican school is beyond the province of this chapter; suf- 
fice it to say that it is not touching, by any means, more 
than a small fraction of those whom it should touch, nor 
has it proved itself capable of holding those intrusted 
to its charge. Failure on the part of the school author- 
ities to provide suitable programmes of study and other 
means for social adjustment is largely responsible for 
this result. The many boys and girls who annually 
drop out of our public schools, entering " blind-alley " 
occupations, or worse, idling away their golden hours 
upon the street, constitute a most serious indictment 
of the present system. The loss to society at this point 
is appalling, and means simply that the expenditure by 
the community upon these individuals is largely a social 
waste. The school, by proper adjustment, certainly 
should stop this leakage and conserve all such possibil- 
ities to the state. This may be accomplished by proper 
legislation directed either toward the raising of the com- 
pulsory school-age limit or toward providing continua- 
tion schools for those who have gone out into their life- 
work. Unless the public school does maintain a hold on 



44 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

each individual child until he can either "find himself" 
or be prepared in some measure to gain a livelihood, it 
is a failure. The school may even become a menace to 
its community when it serves as a " blind" to its patrons, 
and by its vain show tricks them into believing that it 
is fulfilling its purpose and realizing their aims. The 
recent attempt on the part of Wisconsin to secure 
better service from her schools is very significant in 
this respect. By her provision for the appointment of 
an expert commission for the investigation of the school 
problems of the State, and by her adoption of a law- 
making attendance at some continuation school com- 
pulsory up to the age of seventeen, she has taken a 
unique place among the States of the Union, and has 
set a high mark toward which other States might well 
direct their efforts. This movement, first developed in 
the better schools of our large cities as exemplified rather 
notably in the schools of Kansas City, Kans., under 
the direction of Superintendent M. E. Pearson, is a 
harbinger of the better days to come in rural education, 
and of the larger opportunity for those driven early 
into the fight of life. Such a movement is the result of 
our new conception of our responsibility socially to each 
individual member of the state. 

Schools Must Be Well Financed. — But no institution 
can be efficient unless it be well financed. No matter 
how great the efficiency of teachers nor how expert the 
ability of the executive officers the school cannot do its 
best work while in cramped quarters or while fighting for 
existence. In order that it may become an efficient social- 
izing instrument, doing well its work of equipping each 
individual child for service in life, the public school 
system must be placed upon a firm financial basis. But 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 45 

the public school in very many States is to-day under 
a most serious handicap because of its lack of financial 
support. This lack of support is due in many cases not 
so much to indifference on the part of patrons as to the 
unscientific methods employed and to the inefficient 
laws under which the schools of many States are com- 
pelled to labor. The present is demanding in many 
communities every available resource for the education 
of the youth; the future must be even more insistent. 
With the new avenues open everywhere to greater com- 
munity service and to better training of students for 
life-work there must be constantly increasing funds if 
the work is to be well done. Centralization of equip- 
ment and transportation of the student must figure 
largely in our final solution, but, whatever the method 
of procedure toward betterment, it is clearly evident 
that a radical change must be effected both in the manner 
of securing and in the manner of distribution of funds. 
The best results cannot be secured under the system of 
taxation now in vogue throughout the greater part of 
the United States. To secure such results there must 
be a most careful scrutiny of methods employed at every 
point, from the levying of the tax to the expenditure of 
the school funds. The present methods of providing 
revenue are the haphazard, outgrown methods of a past 
age and are not worthy of our enlightened citizenship. 
They are undemocratic because the burden of taxation 
is not equalized, some localities being overloaded with 
the weight of the levy while others escape entirely. 
When any district can rely upon its railroad tax to carry 
on its school, it is unfair to the "other fellow," and 
when an entire Kansas district with a two-million- 
dollar property valuation can escape a school levy en- 



46 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tirely because it happens to have no school, it is time 
for a readjustment in order to give to all a " square deal.''' 
When a Wisconsin district, by a stingy policy toward 
its school, can succeed in robbing and starving its pupils 
to the extent of laying up a yearly bank account from 
the funds appropriated to it by the State, it should be 
some one's business to stand by those children and see 
that they get a "square deal." When any district has 
had its crops blighted year after year and finds it 
impossible to carry on its school until better times come, 
it is high time for some of the others to "go in to the 
rescue." In the report issued by the New York Bureau 
of Municipal Research on the conditions and needs of 
the rural schools of Wisconsin, the opinion is advanced 
that the "distribution of school funds is not the factor 
it should be in effective educational improvement," 
because it "gives no premium to the efficient school; 
it offers no inducement to the district to bring all chil- 
dren to school who should be there; or keep them in 
school after they are enrolled; it disregards the necessity 
of efficient teachers; it permits the expenditure of school 
money without providing adequate control that the pur- 
pose of the expenditure shall be accomplished; it sup- 
plies the machinery for education but ignores the pur- 
poses; as long as the State demands that all children of 
school age must attend school it assumes the responsibil- 
ity of furnishing schools that make of the children useful 
and capable citizens." 1 Coming as they do from a 
body of careful investigators, these indictments carry 
great weight. 

1 Report on the Conditions and Needs of the Rural Schools of 
Wisconsin by the Bureau of Municipal Research of New York City, 
1912. 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 47 

Need of Revision of Our Present Methods. — Dr. 

Cubberley 1 also finds a clear case against the present 
system of taxation and distribution. In the nine Cali- 
fornia counties investigated he found the minimum levy 
to be .44 of a mill, and the maximum levy 3.18 mills 
on each dollar of assessed valuation, the average for the 
State being but 1.22 mills. Nine Wisconsin counties 
varied from .72 to 11.57 mills, the average for the State 
being 1.95 mills. Thirty-seven Massachusetts towns 
varied from .36 to 11.62 mills, and ten Indiana counties 
from 1.76 to 10.41, the State average being but 2.99. 
This inequality in matters of taxation seems to exist 
throughout the United States. The following brief 
table of four Kansas counties indicates clearly the con- 
dition in that State. These counties were chosen 
because their location would serve to bring out the 
great variation due to differences in wealth per capita 
and crop conditions, and the relation of these to the 
school levy. Nemaha County is situated in the extreme 
northeastern part of the State; Shawnee in the east- 
central part, a portion of it being rich Kaw Valley land. 
These two counties rank among the foremost of the 
State, both as to the amount of annual rainfall and as 
to the per-capita wealth. Lane and Seward Counties 
are in the "short-grass" country, the former being in 
the west-central part of the State, the latter in the ex- 
treme southwestern. Nothing could show more forcibly 
the need of a revision of our present methods than a 
comparison of these counties. 

The data for the above counties include the data of 
twelve joint districts in Nemaha County and one each 
in Shawnee and Lane. The levies in these joint districts 

1 Cubberley, E. B., " School Funds and Their Apportionment," p. 53. 



48 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



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THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 49 

do not show the extremes that are to be found in the 
single districts, the minimum for 1910 being one mill 
and the maximum 3.8 mills. This would indicate that 
the larger tax unit made it possible to get adequate 
results with a comparatively low levy. According to 
the data for Shawnee County, Topeka maintained her 
costly school system on a lower levy, 6.10 mills, than 
did Oakland, a suburb, whose levy was 10 mills. Ross- 
ville, with her so-called Barnes Law High School, has a 
levy of only 6 mills. This is possible because of the 
fact that the county at large supports this school to a 
great extent, thus adding a straw to the load carried by 
each district of the county. In this respect the Barnes 
Law is not ideal, although it often makes it possible for 
the weaker community to establish and maintain a high 
school which otherwise it could not do. In Nemaha 
County one striking fact is observed. In 19 10 one 
district levied a tax of 16 mills while three other districts 
levied no tax at all, the average for the county being 
only 1.83 mills. In Seward County the interesting fact 
is observed of a district making a higher levy year after 
year for the payment of the interest on its bonds than 
for the running expenses of its school, the former being 
11 mills in 1908, the latter 7.4 — a total of 18.4 mills on 
each dollar of assessed valuation. A fact observed in 
Lane County is that in 1908 there were eight districts 
which did not support a school. In 191 2 this number 
had doubled, due presumably to crop conditions. Ob- 
viously a considerable number of children are either 
deprived entirely of school privileges on account of this 
fact, or they are compelled to go long distances to se- 
cure them. In 191 2, in Seward County, a " school-dis- 
trict aid tax" made its appearance as a county tax. 



50 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

This was evidently the result of a desire to extend 
school advantages to those deprived of them. In gen- 
eral, it is to be noted that, although the counties are of 
approximately the same size, there are many fewer 
districts in the western counties as compared with the 
eastern, Nemaha having 132 to Seward's 28 in 1910. 
The tax rate, however, is much higher in the western 
counties, Nemaha having an average rate of 1.83 mills 
as compared with Seward's 4.82 mills in this same year. 
The fewer districts result in a much greater number of 
children having no school near at hand, this resulting in 
a lower enrolment of the school population and in a 
smaller attendance in days of those enrolled. Under 
the existing conditions in these two sections of the State 
the logical plan, if followed, would reverse the present 
tax rates for the two sections. At any rate, it is clear 
that the existing method does not adequately provide for 
all the children of the State nor does it " square up" with 
our present ideas of democratic procedure and justice. 

That much the same conditions exist in each of the 
States of the Union can be at best merely indicated by 
our brief survey of the system in force in each. No 
adequate treatment can be attempted in the allotted 
space. The attempt has been made to get the present 
status of affairs in perspective before the mind of the 
reader, and also to bring the treatment of each State 
up to date by a necessarily somewhat superficial ex- 
amination of the school laws as passed in the various 
States by the more recent legislatures. In the matter 
of grouping, much the same order has been observed 
as that used by Dr. Edwin R. Snyder. 1 

Snyder, "Legal Status of the Rural High School," Contributions 
to Education, Columbia University, 1909. 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 51 

Maine. — In 187 1 the legislature of the State of Maine 
passed a law providing for State aid to high schools, this 
being the first attempt on the part of any State to ex- 
tend aid for the purpose of providing free secondary, or 
high school, education. This law provided that the 
State should pay annually an amount equal to the 
amount provided by local taxation for such a free high 
school up to, but not to exceed, $500. Before the close 
of 1873 134 high schools had complied with the pro- 
visions of this act and received State aid. Many of 
these schools had been academies in their earlier ex- 
istence, but had been converted into high schools in 
order to secure the State appropriation. The total 
amount of State funds disbursed in this year was $29,- 
135. In 1878 the number of high schools had increased 
to 150, with a total enrolment of 11,849, an d with a 
total State subsidy of $35,827.86. In 1879 the law was 
amended and thereafter no school could receive an 
amount to exceed $250. In 1890 there were 210 high 
schools which received aid from the State, with a total 
enrolment of 15,299. In the next ten years the number 
of schools increased to 214, the enrolment having de- 
creased to 13,338. This slight increase in the number 
of schools and an actual decrease in the total enrol- 
ment seems to have been due to the introduction of a 
State system of examinations. In 1907 the number of 
high schools receiving State aid had increased to 230, 
with an enrolment of 13,124, and receiving a State sub- 
sidy of $45,104. Since 1891, and continuing for ten 
years 14 academies were granted $500 each, 2 $800 
each, and 1 $300. In 1905 a law was passed providing 
that any town which did not support a high school 
must pay the tuition of its students who were attend- 



52 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ing an accredited high school in a neighboring town. 
In no case could this payment exceed $30 per student, 
the State agreeing to reimburse any such town to the 
amount of one half of such tuition. 

Provision for free text-books and apparatus for the 
use of high schools was made in 1897. Under the pro- 
vision of a law passed in 1909 the teaching of manual 
training, domestic science, and agriculture in academies 
is encouraged. State aid to the amount of $250 for 
each course is provided. The law of 1901 also provides 
a State subsidy of $500 to schools maintaining teacher- 
training courses, there being 13 high schools and acad- 
emies receiving such aid in 191 1. 

Wisconsin. — Wisconsin was the second State to grant 
a subsidy to high schools. In 1875 a law, which fol- 
lowed very closely the law previously passed by Maine, 
was passed in Wisconsin. This provided for a maxi- 
mum subsidy to any school of $500. In 1879 the num- 
ber of schools receiving State aid was 88, with an enrol- 
ment of 6,693, an d with a total State subsidy of $25,000. 
Under this law free tuition was provided for the non- 
resident pupil by his own district. A change made in 
the law by the legislature of 1897 gi ym g State aid to 
those schools only which were operated in buildings not 
used for other school purposes resulted in a decrease 
both in the number of high schools and in the number 
of students enrolled. In 1880 there were only 78 high 
schools receiving State aid and the enrolment had 
dropped to 5,393. In 1885 State supervision was pro- 
vided for. In 1895 a law was passed appropriating $250 
each to 10 high schools to aid in the establishment of 
manual- training departments, and in 1897 this number 
was increased to 20. The annual appropriation also for; 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 53 

free high schools was increased to $100,000. In 1907 
the law regarding State aid for manual- training work was 
amended, and thereafter the State provided funds up to 
one half the cost of such department. Wisconsin pro- 
vided also for the establishment of county agricultural 
schools. The original act provided for the establish- 
ment of but 2, but by 1907 the number had increased, 
and the legislature of that year made appropriations 
for 8 schools in all. Four thousand dollars was made 
the limit of the appropriation to any one school. Wis- 
consin also authorizes county training-schools for 
teachers, 6 of these being in existence in 191 1. Gradu- 
ates of these schools receive special consideration as to 
certification, their diploma being equivalent to a five- 
year certificate to teach, under certain conditions. 

The effect of these appropriations is strikingly shown 
by the rapid increase in the number of four-year schools, 
and in the constant elimination of the two and three 
year schools. Wisconsin has taken another decided step 
forward by the recent passing of a compulsory continu- 
ation school law. 

Minnesota. — The law passed by Minnesota in 1878, 
providing for State aid to high schools, followed closely 
the laws of its predecessors. The amount of the State 
subsidy provided for was $400 for each school. This 
amount remained unchanged for more than twenty 
years. This law was an improvement upon those of 
Maine and Wisconsin in that no definite amount was 
required to be raised by local taxation. In 1881 the 
law was revised so as to permit the establishment of 
public high schools in cities, in incorporated towns, or in 
townships. These schools were required to admit pupils 
free of tuition from any part of the State. By the laws 



54 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

of 1899 and 1 901 those schools entitled to State aid 
were classified as follows: (1) State high schools. (2) 
State graded schools. (3) State semi-graded schools. 
(4) State rural schools. The State high school must 
maintain school for nine months in the year, and was 
entitled to $1,000 annually. The State graded schools 
were entitled to $400 annually, the semi-graded $200 
annually. Should the State appropriation at any time 
be too small to cover the demands of all these schools, 
it must be prorated among them. In 1903 the amount 
of subsidy to State high schools was raised to $1,500, 
to State graded schools to $550, and to semi-graded 
schools $250. In 1895 the amount of State subsidy 
given to those schools offering special training to teachers 
was $500, which amount was increased in 1903 to $750. 
This legislation resulted in an increase of high schools 
during the decade following 1896 from 99 to 192, the 
enrolment increasing from 11,038 to 22,106. In 1913 
a law provided that tuition in the agricultural and in- 
dustrial courses established in high schools in 1909 
should be free to resident pupils, and $2.50 per month 
be charged to non-resident pupils, this to be provided 
by the pupil's home district. State aid to the amount 
of $2,500 annually was granted to these schools, and in 
addition a bonus of $150 for each district which united 
with the central high school district. 

North Dakota. — From the time of its admission into 
the Union North Dakota provided for the organization 
of special district high schools. These schools were at 
first supported entirely by local taxation. In 1895 a 
law was passed similar to that of Minnesota, with the 
exception that there was no provision made for State 
aid. In 1899 this law was reconstructed in such a way 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 55 

as to give the State high school board power to classify 
the high schools into the first, second, and third class. 
Schools of the first class were required to give four years 
of work, and were entitled to receive from the State $175 
annually. Those of the second class were required to 
give three years of work, and were entitled to receive 
$140 annually. Those of the third class were to give 
two years of work, being entitled to receive $100 annually 
from the State. In 1903 the amount of State subsidy 
for the first, second, and third class schools was in- 
creased to $400, $300, and $200 respectively. In 1905 
these amounts were increased still further to $800, $500, 
and $300 respectively. It might be stated in passing 
that the legislatures, almost without exception, have 
failed to make the appropriations large enough to meet 
these demands. 

Pennsylvania. — Pennsylvania is another State which 
has followed very closely the plan of Maine in regard to 
State aid to high schools. In 1895 a law was passed 
providing for the establishment and aid of the smaller 
high schools. According to this law schools of the first 
'class were entitled to $800 annually, those of the second 
class $600 annually, and those of the third class $400. 
But, following out the usual order of wisdom of the 
average State legislature, no appropriation was made to 
fulfil the provisions of the act, and not until six years 
later, or in 1901, was there any money available for 
these schools. In 1901, however, an appropriation of 
$25,000 was made for this purpose, this being increased 
in 1903 to $50,000, and in 1905 to $100,000. This law 
of Pennsylvania has certain very serious defects in re- 
spect to its administration. First, it provides for no 
adequate supervision of schools by State authorities. 



56 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Second, the legislatures have uniformly failed to provide 
sufficient appropriations to fulfil the requirements of 
the act. For schools of the first class, for instance, while 
being entitled to receive $800 annually, the average 
State subsidy for the six years following 1902 was only 
$532. Schools of the second class, being entitled to 
$600, have received an average subsidy of $399 during 
the same period of time. Schools of the third class, en- 
titled to $400 annually, have received an average sub- 
sidy of $266. Despite these defects the growth of high 
schools in Pennsylvania has been remarkable, the num- 
ber increasing from 76 in 1902 to 301 in 1907. In 191 1 
the legislature passed a law authorizing the establish- 
ment of county high schools, these schools (if any should 
be established) to be open even to resident pupils only 
upon payment of tuition. 

Massachusetts. — For a great many years Massa- 
chusetts attempted to secure grammar-school instruc- 
tion for all by a system of coercion directed toward her 
towns. As early as 1647 a legal requirement was made 
of each town of one hundred families to furnish gram^ 
mar-school instruction. In 1789 this requirement had 
lessened so that it applied only to towns of two hundred 
families. By 1824 the requirement had been reduced 
so that practically every town of less than one thousand 
families was exempt. In 1826 the legislature ordered 
that every town of four thousand inhabitants should 
maintain a high school of the first grade; towns of five 
hundred families a high school of second grade. This 
requirement in regard to second-class high schools was 
soon repealed; was restored in 1836; repealed again in 
1840; and again re-enacted in 1848. By this time the 
movement for free high schools had received consider- 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 57 

able impetus, and in 1852 there were 64 high schools; 
by 1876 this number had increased to 216, and the later 
growth has been in corresponding ratio. 

In 1 89 1 the State made a decidedly new step when it 
ordered that free high school tuition should be the legal 
right of every child. By this act every town must pro- 
vide high school opportunities either by establishing its 
own school or by providing free tuition for such as would 
attend in a neighboring town. By the law of 1902 any 
town of less than five hundred families and with a 
property valuation of less than $750,000 was entitled to 
receive from the State the entire amount expended for 
tuition of pupils attending a neighboring school. If 
such town had a property valuation to exceed $750,000 
the State reimbursed it to the amount of one half of 
such tuition; and any such town of less than five hun- 
dred families and employing two or more teachers was 
entitled to receive $300 annually from the State. By 
the law of 1906 the two-teacher high school was not en- 
titled to State aid. In 191 1 the law of 1902 was amended 
and the property valuation was placed at $1,000,000, 
the other provisions remaining the same. 

New York. — The State of New York makes use of 
a plan somewhat similar to those previously described. 
Several different funds are provided by the State in aid 
of secondary education. The literature fund is a fund 
to be applied entirely in support of secondary educa- 
tion. The library fund may be participated in by the 
academic departments of cities, academies, and union 
districts. These funds are apportioned as follows: 
each city, each union district, and each non-sectarian 
academy complying with the regulations of the Regents 
pf the University of New York is entitled to receive 



58 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

$100 for each academic department maintained. In 
addition to this lump sum each non-sectarian private 
academy is entitled to receive from the State an amount 
not to exceed the amount raised locally for books, pic- 
tures, and apparatus, such amount not to exceed $250 
annually. Each union school district maintaining an 
academic department may receive under the same con- 
ditions an amount not to exceed $268 for any one year 
and $2 additional for each teacher employed. After 
providing in a similar way for academic departments in 
cities, for tuition for non-resident pupils, and for li- 
braries in common-school districts, the remainder of 
the fund is apportioned upon the basis of attendance 
of the academic pupils. The secondary schools receive 
aid further in the following manner: Each district having 
an assessed valuation of $20,000 or less shall receive 
$200; each district with a valuation of $40,000 or less 
shall receive $175; each district with a valuation of 
$60,000 or less shall receive $150; and each remaining 
district shall receive $125. The law further provides 
that each district is entitled to receive $100 for each ad- 
ditional teacher after the first, also for the payment of 
the tuition up to $20 of non-resident pupils. Teacher- 
training departments receive $700 annually from the 
State also, there being ninety of these in 191 2. 

As to the success of this plan, the 1905 report of Dr. 
Andrew S. Draper, Commissioner of Education for the 
State of New York, reads as follows: "What is known 
as the literature fund was established in aid of second- 
ary education in 1790. The stream made a fine start, 
and it has gathered volume in its progress. The State 
appropriation for the purpose is now $250,000 annually. 
The State appropriations from 1793 to 1904 were $4,523,- 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 59 

983. The total expenditures of the system up to 1904 
have been $104,583,413. The system has, of course, 
seen its most marvellous growth in the last twenty-five 
years. In 1880 the extent of the State aid was $43,000 
and the total expenditures for the secondary schools 
were $1,013,780. In 1890 the State aid was $107,559, 
and the total cost of the system was $2,341,956. In 
1904 the State aid was $312,368, and the total expendi- 
tures were $8,111,369. In 1893 there were 47,799 in our 
secondary schools, and in 1905 there were 95,096. The 
secondary school system is evenly distributed over the 
State for it has schools in every county." 

By the report of 1908 the apportionment for the year 
ending September 30, 1907, was as follows: 

For quota of $100 to each non-sectarian secondary 

school $65,600.00 

For tuition of non-resident students 88,608.46 

For library books, apparatus, and pictures 142,569.35 

For attendance of academic students 255,411.96 



Total $552,189.77 

That the law regarding free secondary education in 
New York is far from ideal is clearly indicated by these 
facts, gathered from the report of the commissioner of 
education for 1908. The average per-capita cost of 
secondary education in high schools for 1907 was $80.87. 
In academies of the State for the same year the aver- 
age per-capita cost was $179.97. The maximum amount 
permitted to these schools by the State as a State sub- 
sidy was but $20 per capita. Again, the per-capita 
cost of academic students is from $3 to $5 greater in 
villages than in cities. Since the cities are permitted 



60 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

at present to charge tuition according to their per- 
capita cost of instruction, the ultimate result must be 
that the poorer student financially will be forced either 
into the poorer schools of the small town or out of 
school entirely. 

Rhode Island. — The State law of Rhode Island grant- 
ing aid to high schools is similar to that of New York, and 
was passed in 1898. This law provides that any town 
maintaining a high school and offering an approved 
course of study shall be entitled to receive annually 
from the State $20 for each of the first 25 pupils in aver- 
age attendance, and $10 for each of the second 25 pupils 
in average attendance. Any town not maintaining a 
high school and which makes provision for the free at- 
tendance of its children at some approved high school 
or academy is entitled to receive State aid for each pupil 
on the same basis as if it maintained its own high school. 
In 1900 permission was granted to the school committee 
of any town to pay for the transportation of pupils to a 
neighboring school. In 1903 the legislature abolished 
all school districts and vested the administration of all 
schools in the town. This law provides also for the 
uniting of two or more towns forming any district for 
high school purposes. While these laws place a pre- 
mium to some extent upon increased attendance in high 
school, they do not encourage the establishment of local 
high schools. In 191 1 the amount of State aid for the 
first twenty-five pupils in average attendance was in- 
creased from twenty dollars to twenty-five, and for the 
second twenty-five pupils from ten to fifteen dollars. 

New Hampshire. — The method for State aid to high 
schools in New Hampshire is somewhat similar to the 
one followed by New York. An important exception 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 61 

is in the matter of flexibility of administration. The 
State fund consists of a literary fund and an equaliza- 
tion fund, the latter consisting of an annual appropria- 
tion of $25,000. Twenty-five per cent of this amount, 
plus an additional $10,000, is devoted to the aid of 
supervision in the poorer towns. The remainder of the 
equalization fund, $18,750, is apportioned only to such 
towns as have a valuation of less than $3,000 for each 
child of the average attendance in the public schools, 
and to such other towns as may be added to the list 
upon recommendation of the State superintendent. This 
fund is apportioned to these towns in direct proportion 
to their average attendance and in inverse proportion 
to the equalized valuation per child. In 1906 the amount 
received by the various towns and districts from the 
equalization fund varied from $1.10 to $4.88 per capita. 
The literary fund in 1906 amounted to $36,931, which 
was apportioned to towns and other school districts in 
proportion to the number of pupils in attendance upon 
their public schools for a period of not less than two 
weeks. The amount thus received was only fifty-seven 
cents per student, and is so small as to be of no value 
as a State aid to high school instruction. In 1901 the 
legislature passed an act compelling all towns not sup- 
porting a high school or a school of similar grade to pay 
the tuition of children in attendance at any approved 
high school or academy in the State. The act provided 
also for the reimbursement of the poorer towns in amounts 
varying from ten to one hundred per cent of the amounts 
actually expended for such tuition, this being dependent 
upon the rate of taxation both for school purposes and 
for general purposes. 

In 1909 the basis of State aid was changed to an equal- 



62 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ized valuation per student basis. The towns of group 
I were those having a property valuation of $2,000 
or less per pupil in average daily attendance. Such 
towns received a State aid of $1.75 per school week for 
each twenty-five pupils. Group II included those towns 
with a valuation of $2,000 to $3,000 per pupil, and being 
entitled to $1.50 per week for such group. Group III 
included towns of $3,000, to $4,000 per pupil, each being 
entitled to $1.25 per week per group of twenty-five. 
Group IV included towns of $4,000 to $5,000 valuation 
per pupil, each being entitled to $1 per group. Group 
V included towns of $5,000 to $7,000 valuation per pupil, 
each town being entitled to $0.75 per group of twenty- 
five. A further aid to high schools was provided in the 
shape of a bonus for each normal school graduate em- 
ployed in the school as a teacher, each one being worth 
$2 per week. Schools employing graduates of schools 
of equal rank with the normal are also entitled to receive 
this amount of State aid. 

Vermont. — In 1876 Vermont passed a law permitting 
districts to contract with academies for the education 
of their pupils. Another act was passed at the same 
time permitting towns to establish high schools. In 
1894 a law was passed providing that towns with a 
population of 2,500 must support a high school or pro- 
vide secondary education for their children in an acad- 
emy or other graded school. In 1900 it was further 
provided that towns having an academy, seminary, or 
a high school within their limits should provide free 
secondary instruction. In lieu of this any town might 
provide such instruction free in other towns. In 1907 
a new law referring to high schools was passed. This 
provided that every town should either maintain a 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 63 

system of high school instruction or should furnish free 
tuition for its pupils in an adjoining town either within 
or without the State. No town should be compelled to 
pay more than twenty-four dollars annually for any one 
pupil. This law further provided that the State should 
reimburse such towns as paid the tuition of pupils as 
follows: Any town expending forty per cent of its 
available tax levy for school purposes should receive an 
amount equal to one fourth of the amount expended for 
tuition; towns expending fifty per cent of such levy 
should receive an amount equal to one half that ex- 
pended for tuition; towns expending sixty per cent of 
levy should receive an amount equal to three fourths 
that expended ; while towns expending seventy per cent 
were entitled to an amount equal to the whole sum ex- 
pended for such tuition. The law of 191 2 provides for 
teacher-training courses in rural high schools. These 
courses are open to seniors and graduates of high schools. 
The graduate student completing a teacher's course re- 
ceives a license to teach in the schools of the State for a 
period of five years, the senior student receiving a license 
to teach for four years. Academy students are also 
eligible to profit by the provisions of this law. Eight 
hundred dollars per year is the maximum subsidy for 
these schools. 

Connecticut. — The general assembly of Connecticut 
in 1897 provided that any town not supporting a high 
school should pay the tuition in whole or in part of any 
child who resided with his parents or guardian and at- 
tended an approved high school in the State. At the 
same time an act was passed providing for the reim- 
bursement of the smaller towns to the extent of two 
thirds of the amount actually expended by the town for 



64 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tuition of pupils in an outside high school; the next 
general assembly extended this list to include the larger 
towns. The limit of such reimbursement by the State 
was thirty dollars for each pupil. In 1903 a law pro- 
viding for transportation of pupils to a neighboring high 
school was passed. This law permits any town to pay 
the transportation of its pupils and provides for the re- 
imbursement of such town to the extent of one half of 
the amount thus expended, provided that such amount 
does not exceed twenty dollars per pupil. This provision 
regarding tuition reimbursement extends also to the 
academy. State aid for the high school library is pro- 
vided also to the extent of ten dollars for the establish- 
ment of a library and five dollars annually thereafter, 
provided that a like amount is raised locally. In 1909 
a law was passed making provision for the establish- 
ment of evening high schools in towns and districts 
having 10,000 or more inhabitants, these schools to be 
open to persons over fourteen years of age. 

Delaware. — In the State of Delaware there is no legal 
recognition of high schools as such. All such schools 
are considered a part of what is known as graded schools, 
and as such benefit equally in the distribution of the 
State school fund, which is apportioned upon the teacher 
basis. The State fund consists of the income from the 
permanent school fund and appropriations made by the 
legislature. This appropriation cannot fall below $132,- 
000 annually. This, together with an income of $34,- 
296.50, as in 1900, would give each school of the State a 
little more than $185 per teacher. In 1899 the general 
assembly of Delaware provided for the division of the 
State into districts containing one or more graded schools 
to be free to the qualified pupils of such districts. The 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 65 

basis upon which appropriations are made is $15 per 
pupil for each year spent in school. 

New Jersey. — The early high schools in New Jersey 
were incorporated as a part of the general system. 
Not until 187 1 was a provision made for a State school 
tax, and then the schools were made free to all children 
of the State. In 1894 the township school law abolished 
the small districts and made the municipality the unit 
of school administration. Previous to 1901 the State 
levy \*as made such as would produce $5 per child of 
school age. In this year the law was changed and a 
levy of two thirds of a mill on the dollar was provided. 
In 1903 this rate became 2% mills upon each dollar. 
In 1907 the income from this levy was over four mil- 
lion dollars. This money is apportioned in the follow- 
ing manner: $600 for each superintendent and supervis- 
ing principal; $200 for each teacher employed during 
the school year; $80 for each teacher employed during 
a part of the year; the remaining amount is apportioned 
among the several districts in proportion to the atten- 
dance in each district. An act passed in 191 1 encouraging 
the establishment of normal-training courses provides 
that certificates from these courses in high schools are 
valid for teaching purposes. An act of 191 2 extends 
school privileges free of tuition to resident persons over 
twenty years of age. 

Maryland. — The State of Maryland provides for the 
establishment of county high schools, and for their sup- 
port by county tax. A law providing for the establish- 
ment of county high schools was passed in 1872. It 
provided that the county school commissioners might 
accept a high school building from an election district, 
or combined election district, and thereafter maintain a 
high school in such building out of the general school 



66 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

fund. In 1898 manual training schools were provided 
for. This act stipulates that when a suitable building 
or room connected with one of the graded or high schools 
of the county shall be provided by the county, the 
county school commissioner may accept such building 
and maintain manual-training courses out of the gen- 
eral school fund. Such a school is authorized to re- 
ceive $1,500 as a State subsidy. This amount may not 
be secured after the first year unless there is an average 
daily attendance for the previous year of thirty pupils. 
If there are two or more such schools in the county they 
must share equally in the above amount. An act of 
this same year also provided for State aid of colored in- 
dustrial schools in a like amount, thus making it possible 
for any one school in a county to receive $3,000 yearly 
for this kind of work. The legislature of 1908 provided 
also for State aid to certain other high schools. These 
schools must be approved, and must offer besides the 
regular academic work a course in business training, 
the State being authorized to aid by a subsidy of $1,000 
annually. No such appropriation may be made to more 
than one approved high school in the county, where 
the total school enrolment is less than 4,000. Prac- 
tically all the counties of Maryland have accredited 
high schools, many of these beginning their high school 
work in the seventh grade. 

Virginia. — Virginia has permitted for a number of 
years the establishment of high schools, the local boards 
being permitted to charge all pupils a tuition fee of 
$2.50 per month. In 1906 the general assembly pro- 
vided for the establishment of high schools in districts 
or joint districts and authorized State aid to these 
schools. When local funds to the amount of $250 have 
been provided for, the State will appropriate an equal 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 67 

amount for the support of such high schools, the maxi- 
mum amount of State aid being $400. The assembly 
of 1908 provided for the establishment of normal- train- 
ing departments in certain high schools. The State 
board is empowered to select the schools which are to 
give this instruction. The maximum of State aid for 
this purpose is $1,500, which must all be applied to the 
payment of teachers in the normal department. Only 
one school may receive this aid in the county. This 
same year provision was made also for the encourage- 
ment of courses in agriculture, domestic economy, and 
manual training in at least one high school in each con- 
gressional district, $20,000 being appropriated for that 
purpose. The growth of the high school under the law 
of 1906 was phenomenal, there being an increase from 
74 to 218 schools in the first year of its existence. 

North Carolina. — North Carolina makes it legal to 
teach high school subjects in any district which employs 
more than one teacher, the expense of instruction to be 
provided out of the regular school funds. Towns are 
authorized to appropriate money for the support of 
high schools and may levy a special tax for this purpose. 
In 1905 over 800 district schools were doing a certain 
amount of high school work. The general assembly of 
1907 passed an act in aid of high schools in rural com- 
munities. It provided that when a local community 
raised by any means a minimum of $250 per annum for 
the support of a high school the State would provide a 
like amount up to $500. Not more than four such 
schools may receive aid in any county, nor may they be 
established in towns of more than 1,200 inhabitants. 
It provides, further, that such schools must give in- 
struction five months in the year and must employ three 
teachers or more at a salary of $40 or more per month. 



68 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Tuition for non-resident pupils is reimbursed by the 
State to such counties as have no high school; no amount 
in excess of $500 being permitted to any county. Under 
the law of 191 1 teacher- training courses are authorized, 
but without any State subsidy being provided for their 
encouragement. 

South Carolina. — In 1907 the legislature of South Caro- 
lina authorized the establishment of high schools by 
counties or townships, union of townships, union dis- 
tricts, or by towns of less than one thousand inhabitants, 
these schools to be supported partly by local and partly 
by State tax. This act provides that not more than 
$2,500 annually may be received by any county from 
the State. No school may receive from the State more 
than fifty per cent of the amount raised locally; it must 
have at least 25 pupils enrolled and employ at least two 
teachers; and, further, it may not receive more than 
$1,200 annually. In 1907 the appropriation to these 
schools ranged from $222 to $800 for fifty-eight schools. 
In 1 9 13 a state tax of one mill was authorized for the 
purpose of providing funds for public schools, $60,000 
of this amount to be appropriated for high schools. 

Alabama. — In Alabama county high schools are 
authorized in certain counties — the counties in which 
are located an agricultural school, a normal school, the 
University, the Polytechnic Institute, or the Industrial 
School being exempted. Any such county, which pro- 
vides and equips a high school building costing $5,000 
upon a plot of ground of not less than five acres and 
deeds the same to the State of Alabama, will receive 
from the State annually $2,000, for the purpose of pay- 
ing the salaries of teachers. In 1909 a county tax for 
the support of county high schools was legalized. An- 
other act authorized cities or towns to convey property > 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 69 

either real or personal, or to appropriate funds for high 
school purposes. In 191 1 the amount of State aid to 
any high school providing building and ground as above 
stated was increased from $2,000 to $3,000. 

Tennessee. — The legislature of Tennessee in 1899 
provided for the establishment and maintenance at the 
option of the county court of one or more high schools 
in each county, these to be supported by county tax. 
It provided also that counties might combine with 
seminaries, academies, colleges, or cities for the pur- 
pose of maintaining such schools. These schools were 
free to all within the county. The public schools of 
Tennessee were divided into two classes, primary and 
secondary, the secondary school beginning with the 
sixth grade. Tuition where paid by non-resident pupils 
might be paid out of the school fund of the various 
counties. By the act of 1907 any county high school 
board might receive the properties of academies or small 
colleges if tendered them. By the law of 1909 Ten- 
nessee stepped into the front rank of States in the pro- 
vision of funds for the support of the school system. 
By this act twenty-five per cent of the gross revenue of 
the State is set aside for a general education fund. 
Sixty-one per cent of this fund is apportioned to the 
several counties of the State according to their scholastic 
population. Ten per cent is set aside as a special fund 
to be used to equalize more nearly the common schools 
in the several counties, this amount to be apportioned 
according to the scholastic population of each county 
and in inverse ratio of the taxable property to the 
scholastic population. Before this ten per cent may be 
apportioned, $350 for each county must be withdrawn 
from it, this amount to be used to increase the annual 
salary of the county superintendent. Eight per cent 



70 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

of the general fund is to be used as a high school fund, 
this to be apportioned among the several counties. The 
county high schools profiting by this fund must be ap- 
proved by the State inspector and must provide courses 
in agriculture and home economics. One per cent of 
this general fund is to be used for the maintenance of 
school libraries. Thirteen per cent of this fund is to be 
used for the maintenance of normal schools for the train- 
ing of teachers, these schools to be open to white and 
black alike. Seven per cent of this fund is to be used 
for the maintenance of the University of Tennessee, a 
certain amount of this latter sum to be used to pay the 
travelling expenses of young men and women of the 
State in going to the University. It is perhaps needless 
to state that this is one of the most progressive laws in 
aid of general education passed in recent years. 

West Virginia. — The laws of West Virginia legalize 
district and joint-district high schools to be supported 
where necessary by local taxation. A high school may 
be established in any district having a town which sup- 
ports a school of four or more grades in the same build- 
ing. Such a school is free to the pupils of the district, 
and is supported by a tax levied upon the property of the 
district. In 1908 a law was passed providing for the estab- 
lishment of a district high school upon the petition and by 
the vote at any election of the residents of the district. 

Kentucky. — Kentucky, according to the report of 
1907 of the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, has not legalized the high school as distinct from 
the graded school. The report says: "The high school, 
where it exists, is organized under the law providing for 
graded schools. It is safe to say that the rural pupils 
have no high school facilities in the State." 1 

1 Snyder, " Legal Status of Rural High Schools." 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 71 

Georgia. — In Georgia also no special mention is made 
in the laws regarding high schools. They exist as 
a part of the public school system. There are two types 
of schools, middle and senior high schools. The former 
offers a three-year course above the seventh grade, 
the latter a four-year course above the same year. In 
1909 a law was passed adding $2,000 to the annual ap- 
propriation to each of the district agricultural and in- 
dustrial schools. In 191 1 the law was repealed which 
had been in effect previously, making legal the taxation 
in certain counties for school buildings. 

Florida. — The plan of State aid to high schools 
carried out by Florida is also very similar to the plans 
carried out in the foregoing States. The legislatures of 
1903 and 1905 provided for the extending of State aid to 
two classes of high schools and to rural graded schools. 
A senior high school is one having a four-year course as 
provided by the State board, and is entitled under this 
act to an annuity of $600. A junior high school is one 
offering two years of high school work, and is entitled to 
an annuity of $360. A rural graded school is entitled 
to $200 annually. The effect of such legislation is 
clearly seen from the fact that the number of high schools 
increased from seventy- three in 1904 to one hundred and 
six in 1906. 

Louisiana. — In Louisiana graded and central high 
schools may be established by the parishes. The site 
of these buildings must be donated and buildings must 
be provided by some other means than by the use of 
the local school fund. It is needless to state that such 
a law must of necessity practically eliminate the high 
school from the public school system. A parish super- 
intendent of education elected by the parish board of 
school directors supervises the work of the public school. 



72 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Mississippi. — In Mississippi the high schools are ad- 
ministered as a part of the public school system. In 1905 
sixty-eight accredited high schools were reported. In 
his report for the year 1904-5 the State superintendent 
states that only about six per cent of the white children 
of the State are within walking distance of a high school. 
In 1908 a law was passed authorizing a county to estab- 
lish an agricultural high school for its white youth, such 
school to be supported by a tax on all the taxable prop- 
erty of the county. When any such county district 
shall have provided at least twenty acres of land and 
shall have erected suitable buildings, including a dor- 
mitory for the accommodation of at least forty students, 
it is entitled to receive $1,000 annually as State support. 
The State Supreme Court in 1909 adjudged this law 
unconstitutional on the ground that it was discrimina- 
tory, depriving the negro boy of his legal right, and so, 
subversive of the United States Constitution. 

Arkansas. — The high schools of Arkansas are also a 
legal part of the public school system. They may be 
provided in any district at the option of the local author- 
ities. In 1909 a State law provided for the establish- 
ment and maintenance of public schools of agriculture. 
Under its provisions the State was divided into four 
districts, establishing an agricultural school in each 
district and appropriating $160,000 for this purpose. 
By an act passed in 191 1 three fourths of the income 
derived from the forest reserves within the State is to 
be used for the support of the public schools. An act 
passed in the same year provides that high schools 
offering normal-training courses shall receive State aid 
up to $1,000. Under this act a four-year school may 
receive $800, a three-year school $600, and a two-year 
school $400. No high school may receive more than 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 73 

$1,000 any one year. Tuition in these schools is $1.50 
per month to non-resident pupils. Graduates of these 
courses receive certificates which are good for two years, 
and which may be extended to six years after one year of 
successful teaching. 

Oklahoma. — By the laws of Oklahoma high school 
departments may be added to the elementary school 
system where it is desired. County high schools are 
legalized also. Counties having a population of 6,000 
or over may establish a high school upon petition and 
vote of the residents. These county schools are sup- 
ported by a county tax. The State board adopts text- 
books for uniform use in the high schools of the State. 
In 1909 the legislature passed a law providing for the 
erection of buildings and the maintenance of certain 
district agricultural schools. One school is to be located 
in each supreme-court judicial district, each school to 
be of secondary grade. 

Texas. — The high schools of Texas are legally a part 
of the public school system and are supported as public 
schools. In towns and cities which extend the scholastic 
age beyond seventeen it is required that a tax for school 
purposes be levied. The State pays annually nearly 
seventy per cent of the total cost of maintaining the 
schools of the State. In 1909 a law was passed providing 
a special State subsidy to public high schools which gave 
instruction in agriculture, manual training, and do- 
mestic economy. The amount of this State aid is the 
amount of local expenditure, the minimum being $500, 
the maximum $2,000. The amount of these appro- 
priations is raised by a general State tax, which may not 
exceed two mills upon the dollar. 

Ohio. — Ohio has had a township system of high school 
organization in force for many years, the first act rela- 



74 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tive to this dating back to 1853. This law remained 
practically unchanged until 1892, when an act known as 
the Boxwell Law was passed. This provided for uni- 
form examinations for the graded school graduates, and 
permitted those passing such examination to enter any- 
high school in the county or in any adjoining county. 
The tuition of such students might be paid by the town- 
ships to which the students belonged. In 1902 a new 
law in regard to the payment of tuition was passed, and 
a special tax was permitted in each township and dis- 
trict to cover the cost of the tuition of students in out- 
side high schools. In 1898 an act providing for the free 
transportation of pupils was passed. This is left en- 
tirely optional with the local boards, but is now largely 
practised throughout the State. At present there are 
first, second, and third grade high schools, the first offer- 
ing a four-year course, the second a three-year course, 
and the third a two-year course. The minimum length 
of term for the first and second grade schools is thirty- 
two weeks, and for the third-grade schools twenty-eight 
weeks. In 1909 the legislature passed a law authorizing 
the boards of education to levy a tax for the main- 
tenance of agricultural, industrial, and trade -schools. 
Under these various laws the growth of the high schools 
in Ohio has been rapid indeed, the number increasing 
from 781 in 1902 to 930 in 1906. Only about eleven per 
cent of the total amount expended for education comes 
from State sources, this being distributed to the counties, 
and by them distributed to the townships and districts. 
Indiana. — The township high school in Indiana dates 
back to the adoption of the constitution in 1849. The 
early laws encouraged centralization into combined dis- 
tricts, towns, districts and towns, and combined towns. 
These laws gave rise later to township graded schools 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 75 

and township high schools, the first township high school 
having been established about 1872. In 1891 several 
laws were passed in regard to the establishment of high 
schools. At least one separate graded high school 
should be established in each township provided there 
were twenty-five common school graduates of school 
age residing in the township. The school trustee might 
at his discretion provide free transportation for the 
pupils of his township to a neighboring school, the 
tuition of such pupils being provided for also. The laws 
of Indiana provide also for the support of county high 
schools in those counties having received as a gift high 
school buildings and equipment. Tuition in these 
schools must be free to all pupils resident in the county. 
According to the report of the State superintendent for 
1905-6 the total State subsidy amounted to $3.04 per 
capita, the total local revenue being $10.31 per capita. 
Both the State and county distribute these funds upon 
the school-census basis. The law of 191 1 authorized 
cities of 3,000 or over to establish night schools for 
pupils between fourteen and twenty-one years of age. 
The same law made it lawful for cities of 200,000 or 
over to levy a tax in support of trade-schools. 

IJlinois. — The first rural high school was organized in 
Illinois in 1866, and was open in September, 1867, with 
138 pupils. The school charged tuition to outside 
pupils, its income from this source alone amounting to 
nearly $1,000 yearly during the early years of its exist- 
ence. A law passed in 1867 legalized the action of the 
township in establishing this high school and incorpo- 
rated it as the Princeton Township High School District. 
The law of 1872 provided that any school township 
upon petition of five hundred voters might vote upon 
the establishment of a high school within its bounds. 



76 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

For the purpose of establishing such school a township 
shall be considered a district. Two or more adjoining 
townships may proceed in like manner for the estab- 
lishment of schools. The courts of Illinois have ren- 
dered decisions to the effect that the high school is 
legally a part of the common school system of the 
State, and as such is entitled to partake of the benefits 
of the State school fund. The permanent fund consists 
of a State fund, a county fund, and a township fund, 
the State fund during the early years being too small 
to be of much benefit to the high schools. The county 
fund is a fund held in trust for the various towns in the 
districts, the interest of which is used for general school 
purposes. The early two-mill State school tax resulted 
in an income of about $900,000, but since 1873 the 
legislature has made an annual appropriation of one 
million dollars to the public schools of the State. This 
amount as apportioned has not been sufficient to affect 
the high school situation to a great extent, and has not 
encouraged the establishment of new schools. In 1905 
a law providing for competitive examinations for high 
school students was passed, and granting free scholar- 
ships to successful contestants in any of the State normal 
schools. This was in effect State aid for the training of 
teachers. In the year 1906 there were 8?,& such scholar- 
ships granted. In 1907 a law was passed providing 
for the payment by the home district of the tuition of 
non-resident children of poor parents. 1 

1 As evidence of the popularity of the township high school idea in 
Illinois, the following facts are worthy of note. There are at present 
75 of these schools in the State giving employment to 863 teachers and 
ministering to 13,216 students. Of this number, 997, or 7.5 per cent, are 
tuition students, who, in 1912, paid in approximately $37,833, the aver- 
age tuition per student being $37.96. Many of these schools are splen- 
didly housed and equipped, the initial cost of the building of the Oak 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 77 

Michigan. — In Michigan any district or joint district 
with a school census of one hundred may establish a 
high school by submitting the question to a vote of the 
people in the district. This provision has been in effect 
since 1861. The legislature of 1901 passed an act per- 
mitting the establishment of township high schools, 
these to be supported by local taxation. A tuition law 
was passed in 1908 which provided for the payment of 
tuition by non-resident pupils. If their parents are 
taxpayers in the high school district, but do not reside 
therein, they shall be required to pay only the excess 
of the tuition fees above the amount of such tax. Pro- 
vision was made also for any district to levy a tax to 
defray the expense of transportation and tuition of its 
pupils attending in the neighboring high school. In 
1907 the legislature legalized the establishment and 
maintenance of county agricultural, domestic economy, 
and manual training schools, at the option of any county 
or combination of counties, these schools to be supported 
by local tax and be free to all the pupils of the support- 
Park and River Forest High School in Cook County being $350,000. 
Another point of interest is that the Princeton Township High School, 
first organized in 1867, is still in operation. This school, with its en- 
rolment of almost 400 students, 28 per cent of whom are from rural 
districts, seems to be one of the most popular of the Illinois township 
schools. Seventy-five out of its total enrolment of 362 are tuition 
students, who pay in in tuitions almost $3,000 yearly. — (Hollister, H. A., 
"The Township High School in Illinois," Bulletin No. 8, 1912. Uni- 
versity of Illinois School of Education.) 

As evidence of a still more recent provision for free high school educa- 
tion, Supt. C. E. Joiner reports (Feb., 1914) an enrolment in the Mon- 
mouth High School of 420, of which number 144 are tuition pupils, most 
of whom have come in, he says, under the influence of the new high school 
tuition law. It is easy to believe that 5,000 boys and girls will attend 
high schools in Illinois this year who would not have been there without 
the new law of 1913, passed since the above account was written, making 
it compulsory upon districts without a local high school to pay tuition for 
those of its local boys and girls who enter near-by accessible high schools. 



78 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ing county or counties. In 1909 a law was passed 
providing State aid equal to two thirds of the amount 
expended for the maintenance of these schools, the max- 
imum aid to any school being $4,000. The establish- 
ment of normal-training schools in those communities 
in which there is no State normal school has been legal- 
ized. The State pays to these schools a bonus of $500 
for each teacher employed, the maximum amount being 
$1,000 per year for any one school. These schools may 
be established in connection with other high schools, but 
teachers for these separate courses must be employed. 

Iowa. — For a number of years Iowa has permitted cer- 
tain high school work to be done in the graded schools of 
the State. Districts might unite for the purpose of main- 
taining such courses. In 1906 there were over 42,000 
pupils in this kind of schools, a large number of these 
being tuition pupils. Tuition in these schools was paid 
by the parent or guardian. The statutes of 1901 pro- 
vided for the establishment of county and township high 
schools. Comparatively few of these have been es- 
tablished. State aid to high schools comes only from 
the interest of State school funds and affects the high 
school situation very little. In 191 1 a law was passed 
providing State aid for normal training, for agricultural, 
and for home economics courses in high schools. Each 
school under this act was entitled to receive $500, the 
maximum amount for the county, however, being $800. 
In 1 9 13 a law provided for the payment of the tuition 
of a graded school graduate in any high school (with 
certain limitations) in the State. Such tuition was to 
be paid by the student's home school corporation and 
might not exceed $3.50 per month. 

Missouri. — The Missouri law permits the establish- 
ment of consolidated district high schools supported 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 79 

by a local tax. By a law of 1907 high schools were 
classified as first, second, and third class, these being 
schools with four, three, and two year courses respec- 
tively. In 1909 a law providing for the establishment of 
county high schools failed to pass. In 19 13 a decided 
step in advance was taken by the passage of the follow- 
ing law: State aid is authorized to any district which 
shall have provided a site of not less than five acres, 
and shall have erected a modern school building with 
a modern system of heating and lighting, including an 
assembly-room for the use of the citizens of the district. 
The State agrees to pay for one fourth the cost of such 
a building in any amount up to $2,000. The law further 
provides for a special State grant of $25 per year for 
each square mile or fraction thereof in the area of the 
district, such sum not to exceed $800 per year to any one 
district. This, of course, is an incentive to consolidation. 
Kansas. — As far back as 1896 the counties of Kansas 
were permitted by law to establish a county high school, 
the one provision being that they have a population of 
6,000. A county levy up to three mills was provided as 
a means of support. In 1905 three courses of study were 
provided for these schools, a general course, a normal, 
and a collegiate, each requiring four years of work for 
completion. Pupils from outside the county are per- 
mitted to attend any school which receives county funds 
upon the payment of tuition. In 1903 counties with a 
population of less than 6,000 were permitted to com- 
bine with the high school at the county seat, thus es- 
tablishing in effect a county high school with partial 
county support. In 191 2 there were twenty-six of the 
regular county high schools in the State, with a total 
enrolment of 3,804. In 1905 a new type of county 
high school came into existence by reason of the passage 



80 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

of the Barnes High School Law. Under its provisions 
any school district or joint district or city of less than 
16,000 inhabitants may establish a high school supported 
by county funds. This law is in effect, however, a 
local-option law, and until the county as a unit has 
adopted it in a regular election no such school can be 
established. Further, no county which has established 
a regular county high school may come under the pro- 
visions of this law. As noted previously in this chapter, 
the law is not an ideal one because, first, it tends to 
overburden certain districts or cities, and, second, there 
is no limit to the number of high schools which any county 
may establish. Because of this latter fact, a determined 
effort has been made to repeal the law. In 1909 a law 
was passed granting State aid to such schools as main- 
tained normal-training courses for teachers. Under the 
provisions of this act the State agrees to pay any county 
$1,000, such sum to be divided among those schools 
maintaining normal- training courses. In no case, how- 
ever, may a school receive more than $500. Other State 
aid to the extent of $500 may be secured by any school 
which offers industrial training and domestic science 
courses. Other State aid to the amount of about one 
dollar per student per year comes from the distribution 
of the income from State school funds. A law passed in 
191 1 provided for county aid to one or more high schools 
in counties of less than 10,000 inhabitants. In counties 
of less than 3,000 inhabitants the same law provided 
that not more than one school in the county might be 
aided, this school to be tKe one located at the county-seat. 1 

1 The legislature of 1909 also passed a law providing State aid, to the 
amount of $250, to those schools offering courses in elementary agricul- 
ture and domestic science. This amount may be secured only under 
certain conditions. First, the school must have been approved by the 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 81 

Nebraska. — Nebraska has authorized the creation 
of high schools since the middle seventies. This early 
law provided that any district with a school census of 
more than 150 be permitted to establish a high school 
and provided for its support by local taxation. It 
provided also that any district board upon being au- 
thorized by vote of the district might contract for the 
free tuition of pupils in a neighboring high school. 
Upon similar conditions the board might provide trans- 
portation of pupils at public expense. In 1895 an act 
was passed providing for the establishment of "free 
high schools." By its provisions any district having 
a school census of 150 children could establish a high 
school, these schools being permitted to collect the tuition 
of fifty cents per week for non-resident pupils. This 
amount was to be collected from those counties in which 
such pupils resided. In 1899 this was modified, the 
tuition rate being advanced to seventy-five cents per 
week per pupil. In 1901 the act was again changed so 
that it provided that only the actual cost of the educa- 
tion of the pupil could be collected. In case the actual 
cost exceeded seventy-five cents, this excess could be 
collected from the parent. This same act provided for 

State board; second, at least ten students must be enrolled each semester 
in these industrial courses; third, the school must provide, at the same 
time, a normal-training course for rural teachers, such a course to give 
opportunity for the study of psychology, physiology, methods, and re- 
views. Opportunity must be given, also, for a certain amount of obser- 
vation work and practice teaching. The law provides, further, that the 
teachers' examination may be given in the school offering the normal- 
training course, the State board providing the questions for this. As 
stated above, high schools may receive funds from the State to aid in 
the establishment of such a normal-training course. In 1913 the legis- 
lature increased the amount of State aid from $250 to $500 for the in- 
dustrial courses, and at present, under very favorable conditions, a 
school may receive $1,000 annually from the State in aid of the above 
work. 



82 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the creation of adjunct districts. The adjunct district 
comprised the outlying territory not included in the 
high school district, the law providing that such portion 
of territory might levy a special tax providing for free 
tuition of its pupils in the neighboring high school. 
The legislature of 1907 provided for the optional estab- 
lishment of a county high school to be supported by 
county tax, those districts already supporting a high 
school being exempt from this tax. Provision was made 
in the same year for the establishment of high schools 
including courses in manual training, domestic science, 
and agriculture, the county board being authorized to 
buy a five-acre tract of land for purposes of agricultural 
experimentation. These schools were free to residents 
of the county. State aid to the amount of $700 was 
appropriated annually for each course in manual train- 
ing. Accredited schools offering normal-training courses 
for teachers were also entitled to receive State aid to the 
amount of $350. The law of 19 13 goes a step farther, 
providing State aid to the amount of $1,250 per year to 
schools maintaining agricultural courses on condition 
that such school be not located in a city in which 
the State already supports such courses in some other 
school. Consolidated high schools, by the same law, 
which cannot comply fully with the State requirements 
are entitled to State aid in the amount of $625 yearly. 
State aid is also provided for certain weak districts to 
the amount of $385. 

Colorado. — The Colorado law provides for high schools 
established by districts, a union of districts, or by coun- 
ties, supported as the other public schools of the State. 
These schools are supported by State, county, and dis- 
trict funds, State and county funds being apportioned 
to the various districts upon the census basis. County 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 83 

high schools are free to those living in the county. In 
1 90 1 it was made legal for any high school district to 
receive and hold such real estate as might be necessary 
for the high school plant. Text-books might be fur- 
nished by the board for indigent children. 

South Dakota. — South Dakota provides for the es- 
tablishment of joint-township high schools, these schools 
to be supported by local tax. Few schools have been 
organized under the act of 1903, which provided for the 
establishment of such high schools. However, consider- 
able high school work is done in the graded schools. 
State-supported preparatory schools are maintained in 
connection with the higher institutions of learning — the 
University, School of Mines, and the Agricultural Col- 
lege. Very little legislation regarding high schools has 
been passed in South Dakota down to the present time, 
nothing of importance appearing in the statutes. 

Wyoming. — In Wyoming high schools were author- 
ized by law in 1887. Special high school districts may 
be created by almost any combination of districts. 
These schools are free to the pupils in the special dis- 
tricts maintaining them. The county schools are free 
to all pupils residing in the county and are supported 
by a county tax. The sum raised by county taxation 
is apportioned as follows: $150 to each high school of 
the county, the balance being apportioned among them 
according to the number of pupils enrolled. 

Utah. — The earlier laws of Utah provided that high 
school subjects might be taught in the common schools, 
the tuition of pupils to be paid by their own district. 
A law also authorized the establishment of high schools 
in districts of 1,000 inhabitants or more, this number 
being lowered to 500 by a law passed in March, 1909. 
Joint districts were provided for also for high school 



84 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

purposes. During the same session, 1909, a library- 
gymnasium commission was appointed, whose duty it 
is to have general control of the gymnasium work and 
free libraries established under the public school system, 
a tax being provided for the maintenance of these li- 
braries. In 191 1 a law was passed making the county 
the unit for school purposes, to consist of one or more 
districts, to be supported by county tax. 

Arizona. — Arizona permits the establishment of a 
high school in any district or union district having a 
population of one thousand or more. But four such high 
schools were reported by the State superintendent in 
1906. Considerable high school work is done in this 
State also in the common schools. In 1909 a law was 
passed establishing four high school scholarships for each 
county at the university. Unfortunately this was 
vetoed by the governor. In 191 2 a law provided for a 
county tax for manual training and domestic science 
courses. Under a law of the same year, State aid in any 
amount up to $2,500 annually was provided for those 
schools maintaining courses in agriculture, manual 
training, domestic science, mining, or other vocational 
pursuits. Tuition in these schools is free to residents of 
the county, but non-residents may be charged tuition 
at the rate of $3 a month. 

Montana. — Montana provides for the establishment 
and local support of county high schools, these to be 
free to all residents of the county. Students from out- 
side counties may be admitted upon payment of tuition. 
In 1907 there were fifteen of these county high schools 
in the State. By the laws of 191 1 very important 
changes were made. In this year a law was passed pro- 
viding for the establishment of free county high schools 
and authorizing a bonded indebtedness of the county 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 85 

up to $250,000 for the purpose of establishing and 
equipping such a high school. The same law provides 
for an annual county tax sufficient to provide for the 
maintenance of the school and for a sinking fund for 
the refunding of the bonds. Another act provides for 
State aid for manual and industrial training work in the 
public schools. Districts of more than 5,000 inhabi- 
tants are authorized to maintain such courses, including 
instruction in elemental wood and textile work, me- 
chanical and industrial drawing, experimental agricul- 
ture, mineralogy, and technical mining. Certain courses 
for girls may also be provided for, such as household 
management, home decoration, and needlework. Tui- 
tion for all these courses is to be free to all pupils of the 
county who have completed the fifth-grade work. Pupils 
above the age of fourteen, together with adults, may be 
admitted to evening classes providing similar instruc- 
tion. A provision for State aid to the amount of $10 
per pupil for each year was passed at this time. 

Nevada. — In 1895 Nevada provided for the establish- 
ment and support of county high schools wherever de- 
sired. Up to 1906 only one such school had been es- 
tablished. In 1909 free text-books were provided for, 
to be furnished by each district, also equipment and 
materials for use in manual training, industrial training, 
and in domestic science. In the same year school dis- 
tricts were authorized to issue bonds for the purpose of 
erecting and equipping buildings for industrial train- 
ing, mineral training, domestic science, and agriculture. 
The county high school law was amended this same year 
so as to give greater encouragement to the establish- 
ment of these schools. State aid is limited at present 
to the distribution of the income from the various State 
school funds. 



86 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

New Mexico. — The law of New Mexico provides for 
the establishment of high schools in towns and cities, 
these to be considered as a part of the public schools 
and maintained as such. In 1905 there were only eight 
of these schools in the State with an enrolment of 491 
pupils. The State supports certain normal schools 
which fulfil the purpose to a degree of secondary schools. 
In 1909 a law was passed authorizing a State bond issue 
of $500,000 for the purpose of aiding the public schools 
of the State. Another provision of the same year is to 
the effect that one half of the money appropriated by 
the United States as income from the forest reserves 
within the State shall be placed to the credit of the 
county school fund. The law of 191 2 (special session) 
provides for the establishment of county high schools 
upon petition and vote of the legal voters of the county, 
such schools to be supported by a county tax. Tuition 
in these schools must be free to residents of the county, 
and they must provide courses in manual training, 
domestic science, agriculture, and commercial science. 
By the law of 1913 more than one such school may be 
located in any county. By its constitution New Mexico 
provides for a State tax for general school purposes. 

Idaho. — Under the laws of 1907 Idaho provided that 
a pupil might attend any high school located in the 
county in which he resided free of tuition. This high 
school was entitled to receive from the boy's home dis- 
trict a sum of money which but partially covered the 
expense of his instruction. The laws of 1909 provided 
for the creation of rural high school districts and for the 
establishment and maintenance of high schools therein. 
Upon petition of five or more heads of families in two 
or more regular school districts not having an incorpo- 
rated city within their limits the question of a high school 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 87 

must be submitted to the people of these districts for 
their rejection or approval. The laws of 1909 provided 
also for the establishment of agricultural secondary 
schools with branch experiment stations at the option 
of the regents of the University. These schools should 
provide a " secondary course of study having for its 
major function vocational education in agriculture and 
in farm-home making, not neglecting subjects of broadly 
educational value." The laws of 191 1 provided for the 
establishment of rural high schools upon petition of the 
people of the district, the schools to be maintained by 
local tax. Tuition in these schools for non-resident 
pupils must be raised by district tax. 

Washington. — The legislature of the State of Washing- 
ton by its law of 1890 put the State in the list granting a 
subsidy in support of free secondary education. The 
law authorized the establishment of union high schools, 
and provided that such high schools should receive 
State aid upon the basis of a two-thousand-day atten- 
dance, no matter what the actual attendance might be. 
In addition to this, the law provided that a bonus of 
$100 should be paid each year to every union high school 
for each high school grade maintained. In 1902 the 
state superintendent in his report pointed out that the 
law failed to accomplish what should be expected of it, 
in that it did not place a minimum limit upon the length 
of the school year and did not define the number of 
pupils necessary to constitute a grade. The legislature 
of 1903 remedied this by setting certain definite limita- 
tions under which the school subsidy could be received. 
As stated by this law a grade was technically construed 
to represent at least six months of work with an average 
daily attendance of at least three pupils. In June, 1906, 
there were 33 union schools in the State with an enrol- 



88 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

merit of 637 pupils, an average of less than twenty pupils 
to each school. Five of these schools offered four-year 
courses, eight offered three-year courses, fourteen gave 
two-year courses, and six one-year courses. Four of 
these same schools received State aid as four-year 
schools, two as three-year schools, eleven as two-year 
schools, and ten as one-year schools. The largest num- 
ber enrolled by any one school was eighty-seven, the 
smallest enrolled by any was four, the amount of State 
subsidy varying from $272 to $1,334. In 1909 the 
entire school code was reconstructed, and laws provid- 
ing for the establishment and maintenance of a general 
and uniform public school system were passed. 

Oregon. — Up to 1903 Oregon had done little in the 
way of making provision for the high schools of the State. 
The law passed in this year provided for the establish- 
ment of district and county high schools. County high 
schools might be established by a majority vote at a 
general or special election. Any number of these might 
be established in any county. Provision was also made 
for the payment of the tuition of high school pupils in 
any district high school previously established, the funds 
in either case to be raised by county tax. In 1907 the 
legislature provided for the establishment of union high 
schools in two or more adjacent districts. It provided 
also that all district and union high schools should be 
open to the pupils of outside districts, the home district 
of all such pupils being responsible for their tuition. 
The law of 1909 provided for the levying of a county high 
school tax for tuition purposes upon petition and vote 
of the residents of the county. The fund thus pro- 
vided was to be apportioned as follows by the county 
high school board, the basis of such distribution to be the 
average daily attendance during the school year. The 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 89 

total amount paid to any district must not be less than 
$40 per pupil for the first twenty of such average daily 
attendance, and $30 for the second twenty, nor more than 
$12.50 per pupil for all the remaining pupils. The 
total paid to any district may not exceed the amount 
paid by the district to the teachers employed. 

Any district of a population of 20,000, according to 
the laws of 19 13, is empowered to establish high schools, 
manual - training schools, vocational schools, trade- 
schools, evening schools, and schools for deaf and back- 
ward children; also training-schools for girls in industrial 
arts. The law provides further for the entire support 
of dependent girls between the ages of fourteen and 
eighteen years for a period not to exceed two years 
while in attendance upon such training courses. In ex- 
treme cases girls under fourteen or over eighteen may 
be admitted and receive such support. District school 
boards are authorized to acquire property, and hold the 
same for the purposes mentioned in the law. Teacher- 
training courses are also provided for, but no State aid 
is available in support of them. 

California. — The first high school was established in 
California in 1858 in San Francisco. 1 In 1879 there 
were only a half-dozen high schools in the State. By 
the terms of the State constitution, adopted in that year, 
none of the State school fund and none of the State 
school tax could be used for high school support, the 
intent being to throw the responsibility of these institu- 
tions upon those local communities which felt that they 
could afford such a luxury. By 1885, because of this 
short-sighted policy, only 12 high schools existed in 
the State. In 1890, when the population had reached 

1 Cubberley, E. B., "The California System of High School Support," 
1912. 



90 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

4,250,000 there were only 24 high schools within the 
boundaries of the State. In 1891, however, by the pas- 
sage of the union high school law it became possible 
for two or more districts or for all the districts of the 
county to unite in order to maintain a high school. By 
means of the union of these districts the high schools of 
the State increased to 98 within four years. By 1900 
practically all combinations possible had been made, and 
the number became nearly stationary at 125, with many 
communities still unprovided for, however. Students of 
the situation saw that an amendment to the State 
constitution, providing State aid to high schools, was the 
only way to secure relief. This amendment, adopted in 
1902, provided for a State tax for the support of high 
schools, and under its provisions the number increased 
very rapidly, there being 229^1912. In 1903 a levy 
of one and one-half mills was made throughout the 
State. For four years the same levy was made, this 
amounting to about $15 per pupil per year. The 
legislature at this time gave the State comptroller 
authority to levy a tax annually which would produce 
$15 per pupil in average attendance during the previous 
year in the high schools of the State. In apportioning 
this the whole amount is divided into two parts of one- 
third and two-thirds respectively. The one-third por- 
tion is then divided among the approved high schools 
equally; the two-third portion among the same schools 
according to their average daily attendance the previous 
year. In 1911-12 the entire grant was $526,265.21. 
One-third of this, or $175,421.74, was divided equally 
among 221 schools, each receiving $794.78. Two- 
thirds of the whole amount, or $350,843.47, was divided 
among these same schools according to the average daily 
attendance in each. In this year the average daily at- 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 91 

tendance in the 221 schools was 35,117 pupils, making 
a distributive share of $9.99 to each of these pupils. A 
school with an average daily attendance of one hundred 
pupils would thus be entitled to $999 from the two-thirds 
portion, or a total of $1,793.78 from the entire grant. 

Under this plan of distribution the school of 20 pupils 
receives $49.72 for each pupil from the entire grant, 
while a school of 100 pupils receives only $17.93 P er 
pupil. This gives a decided advantage to the small 
school, which is as it should be. 

Dr. Cubberley suggests a third division of the entire 
fund, so that encouragement would be given to the pro- 
gressive school with several teachers and with a broad 
programme of studies. Such a division would distrib- 
ute a one-fourth portion of the entire amount equally 
to the approved schools of the State; a one- third por- 
tion to these schools based on the average daily atten- 
dance; and a five- twelfths portion to the different 
schools on the basis of the number of teachers employed. 
According to the same authority, the two-year school 
should receive at least one-half the amount of the full 
grant in order to encourage the establishment of small 
but effective schools in the weaker districts. A three- 
fourths grant should be allowed to the three-year schools 
on the same grounds. A one and one-fourth grant to 
five-year high schools, and a one and one-half portion 
to six-year schools would prove an incentive likewise to 
the establishment of schools offering graduate work. 

Under the present scheme only four-year high schools 
may profit by the State subsidy. If these other schools, 
as Dr. Cubberley suggests, could receive a proportionate 
share of State aid the small communities would be able 
to extend the benefits of education to practically all 
their young people. Not alone this, but the larger 



92 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

schools of the cities would be encouraged to establish 
five and six year courses, and thus offer one or two years 
of graduate work in the high schools. This work could 
be made to correspond with the present freshman and 
sophomore work of the college, or it could partake of the 
nature of vocational work. Such an extension of the 
function of the high school is to be a part of the future 
development, within all probability. 

Another defect in the California plan which might be 
noted is this: The present State appropriation bears no 
relation to the per-capita wealth in any community. 
As a result the local tax levy varies from the very low 
rate of less than a half mill on the dollar in San Francisco 
to the comparatively high rate in smaller cities and dis- 
tricts of five mills. A division of the State fund into four 
portions, the additional part to be apportioned to the 
several schools upon the basis of the local tax levy for 
high school purposes in a manner similar to that of 
Vermont, would go far toward " levelling up" this 
inequality. There seems to be no good reason why the 
State should not grant a subsidy large enough to cover 
the entire per-capita cost of instruction in any commu- 
nity, thus leaving the local energy free to attend to local 
problems, such as better buildings and better grounds. 
In accordance with this idea, California might increase 
still further the amount of State aid with considerable 
advantage to a great many communities. In the ma- 
jority of the States of the Union this problem seems 
scarcely to have been sensed as yet, for, when a State 
offers aid upon too high terms for the average community 
to meet, it is little better than no subsidy at all. For 
this reason the recent law of Mississippi, which author- 
ized State aid to the extent of $1,000 annually, provided 
a costly equipment be supplied by a county, is of little 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 93 

value as an incentive to high school development be- 
cause too few communities can afford such a luxury. 
To be effective to this end the State must carry its full 
share of the burden. Tuition for non-resident pupils 
is provided in California as in Nebraska by levying a 
special tax upon those districts which lie outside the 
high school districts of the county, this tax to be used 
to pay the tuition of the pupils of the non-high-school 
districts in the neighboring high school. 

It is perhaps not necessary to point out "the best" 
among the various methods adopted by the several 
States. The more recent laws represent attempts on 
the part of the framers to meet a distinct need created 
by new conditions. A survey of the legal situation in 
the various States must inevitably enforce with striking 
clearness the fact of the tremendous sweep of the pres- 
ent movement toward the democratic ideal of social 
and economic efficiency. The attempt to secure a more 
effective, a more democratic, school system on the part 
of California, of Tennessee, of Missouri, of Mississippi, 
of Wisconsin, of Minnesota, of Oregon, of Montana, and 
of other States to a degree, is a fine tribute to the men 
back of this movement in these great commonwealths. 
The American people have not yet lost faith in their 
system of free public education. As a matter of fact, 
the instances have been few indeed of attempts to con- 
trovert the evident desire of the people for secondary 
education. The Kalamazoo, Mich., case in 1872, in 
which the Supreme Court decided that taxation for high 
school purposes was legal, has set a precedent for all 
later cases. 

Educational Expert a Public Necessity. — While the 
earlier history of the high school has been singularly 
free from legal tangles, the present status of affairs is 



94 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

no less promising than the past has been. The growing 
feeling that the average legislative body is not fitted to 
deal adequately with a question of such profound sig- 
nificance to every member of the State bespeaks an even 
better future. The example of Wisconsin in placing 
the school problems of the entire State in the hands of 
an expert commission is extremely significant. Such a 
movement is bound to bring results of tremendous con- 
sequence both for the State in question and for others 
which follow the precedent set. Until we are willing 
to set ourselves patiently to work to investigate the 
school situation, to uncover the weak places in the sys- 
tem, little can be hoped for in the way of effective re- 
form. The expert in education as well as the expert 
legislator has become a public necessity, and only through 
such agency can we learn our need, and then plan our 
remedial campaign. The legislative acts of the expert 
should give us a higher standard of education as regards 
parental ideals; the length of the period of attendance 
of the pupil; teacher and supervisor efficiency, protect- 
ing the child and the school from the pedagogical quack 
and old-fogy (for we suffer more to-day from old-fogy- 
ism than from inexperience among teachers) by driving 
them out of the profession, or into channels where they 
may once more "catch up with the procession"; cur- 
riculum needs and community service; besides number- 
less others which challenge attention. Definite action 
can follow only upon definite and clear thinking, and 
thus only shall we solve our school problems. 

The spectacle of legislators groping blindly in their 
attempts to meet conditions entirely strange to them 
would appear grotesque but for its critical seriousness. 
Connecticut's scheme of State subsidy, for example, is 



THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 95 

a burlesque upon the subsidy idea. Under this scheme 
a town may receive a greater amount of State aid as 
reimbursement of tuitions and transportation than 
would be required to maintain a first-class high school. 
Such has been the case too often and too long for it to 
be considered mere accident. Moreover, if a town should 
be so indiscreet as to establish its own high school and 
thus provide educational facilities for a larger number 
in the community, it thereby cuts off its own head. No 
State aid is granted to a town supporting a high school, 
so its outside income by its own act is cut off at once. 
A comparison of this situation with that in certain other 
States where a careful survey has been made previous 
to remedial legislation should certainly leave no doubt 
as to the efficacy of the expert and as to the urgent 
need for his services. 

Despite the great demands which are being made 
to-day upon the States and counties and small com- 
munities for funds for the high school, these demands 
are being met, in the main, cheerfully. And whenever 
each high school begins to pay back into the community 
in the form of public service even a small part of that 
expended in its maintenance, its financial problem will 
be solved; and when it has entered fully upon such a 
policy, its prosperity will be measured only by the pros- 
perity of its community and of its commonwealth. 
Funds will be available always for experiment and for 
added equipment for better service. Yesterday America 
stood for opportunity; to-morrow no one may even 
prophesy as to what it may mean under a new regime 
of democratic school administration, offering the needed 
incentive to endeavor and training for the highest effi- 
ciency both in the community and in the State. 



96 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



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CHAPTER IV 

THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 
By Homer W. Josselyn, A.M. 

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION, UNIVERSITY 
OF KANSAS 

The High School as "Big Business." — From the date 
of the establishment of the English Classical High School 
in Boston, in 182 1, there has been a marvellous develop- 
ment in the field of secondary education in the United 
States. Looked at from any angle — enrolment, num- 
ber of high school teachers, or buildings — the figures are 
stupendous. Such great advances have been made also 
in the value of high school property, in the annual ex- 
penditures and in the annual income, that we may regard 
the high school only in one light, that of other "big busi- 
ness" enterprises. 

Everywhere the importance and necessity of provid- 
ing secondary education to improve the civic, social, 
economic, and spiritual welfare are recognized as never 
before. It is difficult to find a community into which 
any of the effects of our modern development have 
penetrated where there is opposition to the high school 
as such. Since the famous Kalamazoo decision there 
has been yearly a lessening of the antagonism which was 
formerly shown by a considerable element in every town 
against publicly supported high schools. 

Extension of High School Opportunities. — The effort 
American towns and villages have been making to give 

101 



102 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

every child an opportunity to attend a high school is 
one of the great achievements of the century. The 
hope, however, that all classes of pupils will in any 
measure make use of this opportunity and that society 
will receive large returns from their high schools is not 
now so striking. To increase the enrolment in schools 
of secondary grade from the industrial and wage-earning 
classes progressive communities are offering newer types 
of courses and curriculums, or setting up other types of 
schools. 

Within the next few years high school education will 
cease to be a luxury — an intellectual equipment only— 
and will become a necessity because of its practical value. 
Michigan very recently passed the law that comple- 
tion of an elementary school course should no longer 
exempt boys and girls from compulsory school regula- 
tions. Ohio and Indiana and other States imply a 
similar conception in their recent statutes. This, of 
course, means that larger numbers of pupils will enroll 
in the high schools of these States, and, as many will 
have no aptitude for book knowledge, the further de- 
velopment of the elective system and larger opportuni- 
ties for practical training will result. 

In common, then, with all other American institu- 
tions our public high school has grown tremendously 
within the last two or three decades. The fact, however, 
that it is a public enterprise has retarded the develop- 
ment of the proper standards of administration. That 
there is an imperative need for adequate business ad- 
ministration is more clearly seen if we consider the facts 
for public education as a whole. 

Statistics for Public Schools. — In 1900 the number of 
public school teachers reached 423,062, and by 1909 the 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 



103 



total increased to 506,040. During the same period the 
number of public schoolhouses jumped from 248,279 
to 257,851. The value of school property in 1900 was 
$550,531,217, while in 1909 it reached the enormous sum 
of $967,775,587. This means that to-day more money 
is invested in public school property than it cost to run 
the federal government in 1910. 

Sources of public school revenue have kept pace with 
the development of school property. The following 
table gives the main facts in brief. 1 





1900 


1909 


Permanent funds and rents 


$ 9,152,274 

37,281,256 

149,486,845 

219,765,989 


$ 13,746,826 

63,247,354 
288,642,500 
403,647,289 


State taxes 


Local taxes 1 


All sources 



; An increase of about 90 per cent. 



A little study of these figures shows us that the amount 
of the local tax has increased 90 per cent in nine years. 
This is all the more remarkable when we remember that, 
while the country's population increased 20 per cent and 
school population only 15 per cent, the income for schools 
increased 83 per cent. 

Considering the cost of public schools, we find that 
the expense in 1900 was $214,964,618, and in 1909 
$401,397,747 — an increase of 86 per cent. In 1900 the 
cost per capita of population to meet this was $2.84, 
while by 1909 it had jumped to $4.45. The total ex- 
penditure per pupil for common school purposes in 1900 

1 Figures based on Report of Com. of Ed., 191 1. 



104 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

was $20.21, and in 1909 it was equal to $31.65, or an 
increase of 56 per cent. Accompanying this increase, 
however, was a steady falling off in the percentage of the 
total common school income devoted to salaries for 
teachers. In 1900, 64 per cent of the total income was 
for teachers' salaries, but in 1909 it decreased to 59.2 — 
a decided drop and one that cannot be realized with any 
degree of satisfaction. There was a wide range also in 
the enrolment statistics throughout the country. In 
the larger cities the proportion of persons six to twenty 
years old attending school 1909-10 ranged from 51 per 
cent in Richmond to 69.8 per cent in Cambridge. The 
cities with 65 per cent and over are Boston, Cambridge, 
Denver, Los Angeles, New Haven, Oakland, and Worces- 
ter. Cities with a low percentage, 55 per cent and un- 
der, are Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Memphis, New 
Orleans, and Richmond. 1 The fact that cities of a 
small percentage of school attendance are found, almost 
entirely, in the South is largely, but not wholly, explained 
by the large negro population in southern cities. 

One of the very interesting facts found in the report of 
the commissioner of education for the public schools is 
that there has been a decided decrease in the percentage 
of children five to eighteen, or the common school popu- 
lation in the past three decades. In 1880-90 the num- 
ber of children five to eighteen increased 23 per cent; 
1 890-1 900 the increase was 17 per cent, and 1900-10 
the percentage of the increase dropped as low as 15 per 
cent, and that, too, in the face of the fact that our total 
population increased more than 21 per cent. 

Important High School Statistics. — Turning now from 
the figures for the common schools as a whole to the 

1 Figures based on 13th census, U. S., 1910. 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 



105 



statistics showing the increase for the last twenty years 
in the number of high school buildings, teachers, and 
pupils as found in the reports of the commissioner of 
education, we see by the constant and rapid advance 
clearly the interest and faith of the American people in 
secondary education. Within the past decade the in- 
crease in the value of property used for high school pur- 
poses and for current expenditures has been marvellous. 
Never have any people shown such willingness to tax 
themselves for educational purposes as our people are 
showing to-day throughout the whole length and breadth 
of our land. Some conception of the magnitude of this 
most significant sociological fact may be gathered from 
the figures given in the following table based on the 
statistics found in the latest report of the commissioner 
of education. 



YEAR 


SCHOOLS 


TEACHERS 


STUDENTS 


1889-9O 

1894-95 

1899-OO 

I904-O5 

I909-IO 

I9IO-II 


2,526 
4,712 
6,005 
7,576 
IO,2I3 
IO,234 


9,120 
14,122 
20,372 
28,46l 
41,667 
45,l67 


202,963 
350,099 

519,251 
679,702 
9I5,06l 
984,677 





There were, then, 3,500 more high school teachers in 
191 1 than in the year ending June, 19 10, and of the total 
number, 45,167, there were 20,152 men and 25,015 women. 
A clearer conception of all the facts relative to the in- 
crease in the importance of secondary education may be 
gained by studying the charts that immediately follow. 1 

x The author wishes to acknowledge gratefully the assistance given 
by his pupil, Mr. Paul Kruger, in the construction of these charts. 



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106 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 107 

"Scientific Management" of High Schools. — The 
public management of a material equipment worth ap- 
proximately one billion dollars and the spending of a 
yearly budget of over four hundred millions, constitute 
one of the biggest enterprises in the realm of big busi- 
ness. As a rule, privately managed corporations are 
better handled than state or municipal affairs. Fault 



HIGH SCHOOLS 

1889-1911 

SCALE ■■ - 1000 

Chart III 

can be found with our American citizens for their at- 
titude toward inefficiency in federal, state, and municipal 
affairs. It is much below the standard set by the busi- 
ness world. In the willingness of men to pay taxes and 
not get adequate or clear information as to the sources 
of revenue, the amounts, and the expenditures we 
see another evidence of the indifference of the average 
American citizen toward affairs of government, provided 
that the government permits him to handle his private 
enterprises without much interference. 

Business management of to-day is a scientific occu- 



HIGH SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT 




SCALE: 
STUDENTS — 
TEACHERS wm 
BUILDINGS « 

Chart IV 



40000 
2000 
1000 



108 




< 3 

U 111 




109 



110 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

pation, and no longer is it possible for a man to succeed 
whose methods are out of date and inadequate. The 
progress in business accounting, cost fixing, and the 

HIGH SCHOOL ENROLLMENT 

NUMBER OF PUPILS pS°SLl 

68 12 

89 11 

SO lO 

83 11 

85 11 
88 IS 

86 14 
86 14 
85 IS 

84 16 
63 17 
88 18 
88 IB 
81 13 
73 B1 
7B S3 
7S 8S 
71 89 

71 as 

70 30 
68 38 
68 38 

SCALE: ■■ s 100000 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS HI PRIVATE SCHOOLS CD 

Chart VII 

From 1890 to date there has been a steady increase in the per cent 
of high school enrolment found in the public high schools of the 
United States and consequently a falling off in the importance of the 
private high schools of the country. 

elimination of waste, by the use of every possible means, 
is very gratifying to the student of administrative and 
financial problems. It serves more forcibly, however, 
to call attention to the vast amount yet to be done before 
we shall have begun to attain anything like the present 





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This chart should be compared with Chart IX. While the per cent of 
total high school enrolment for any year from 1906-07 to 1911-12 found 
in the fourth year of high school is fairly constant, varying only from 
n. 7 to 13 per cent, it should be noted that the per cent retained until the 
fourth year, of any class enrolling four years previous, varies only from 
37 to 39_per cent in the case of the classes 1906-10, 1907-11, and 1908- 
12. This proves conclusively that the high schools are to-day educating 
a much larger per cent of the total number enrolled than the figures in 
Chart VIII would lead one to believe. This also proves again the tre- 
mendous increase in high school enrolment each year. 

Ill 




112 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 113 

level of business efficiency in our educational and 
political institutions. Individual and social welfare 
alike demand the highest and best possible development 
in the handling of public institutions, particularly the 
schools. 

Though there has been much improvement in school 
administration within the last few years looking toward 
a more effective organization of public school systems, 
the methods followed in most places would be disastrous 
if applied to private business enterprises. If we could 
get the frank opinion of capable, unbiassed business men 
we should no doubt be told that the school falls far 
below the standard of "big business" in administering 
its work. It is run on too haphazard a basis. It pays 
too little attention to developments and methods of the 
outside world. It deals with many situations in an 
artificial manner. It employs incompetent clerks, makes 
long and unwieldy reports, fails to give an accounting 
to the people that they can understand, etc. Whereas, 
everywhere in the realm of private enterprise the im- 
portance of and necessity for vital information and 
accurate statistics in regard to each little branch of the 
business have been insisted upon. 

Because our secondary schools have developed so that 
we can think of them only in the aggregate as of other 
"big business" enterprises, it is imperative that busi- 
ness principles of management and administration, tests 
for measuring the quality of the product and teaching 
efficiency be worked out by schoolmen. If this is not 
done there will be developed in this country private con- 
cerns for this new field of public service. If tradition 
remains so strong that the conservative office superin- 
tendent and high school principal will not set about ac- 



114 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

complishing these results, it is hoped that private con- 
cerns will be called in to make surveys and check up 
conditions; and if in the process some of the old regi- 
ment, pried loose from their positions, later pose as 
martyrs, let us waste less sympathy on them than we 
do on the inefficient clerk who has been supplanted by 
the adding-machine. The secondary schools must be 
standardized, and in doing so the lame, the halt, and 
the blind must be pensioned off or otherwise disposed of. 
It is in the nature of a business and social crime for any 
city to maintain on its payrolls teachers, principals, or 
superintendents who are not thoroughly qualified to 
discharge such duties of their positions just because of 
their political or other affiliations. 

The Unusual Difficulty. — The problem of the business 
management of the high schools is a very difficult one. 
The opportunity is there to call forth the highest abili- 
ties of the most capable and thoroughly trained men. 
The business manager must not only know business 
principles, but he should be well informed in sociology, 
political science, economics, and commercial law. He 
should have in his employ trained men, who, under his 
general supervision, organize and run the affairs of the 
school board in the same efficient manner that the affairs 
of a large corporation are conducted. The salaries here, 
for men of insight and demonstrated business ability, 
should be such as to compete with those offered in the 
great industrial enterprises. 

Movements in the Right Direction. — Already, in 
some of the larger cities, experts in business affairs are 
employed to handle that side of the work. This busi- 
ness manager is the executive officer of the school board 
in all business transactions. The dates for the estab- 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 115 

lishment of this officer in American cities are as follows: 
Cleveland, 1892; Indianapolis, 1900; Boston, 1906; Cin- 
cinnati, 1908; Louisville, Oakland, CaL, 1910; Chicago, 
191 1 ; Rochester, N. Y., 191 2. In 1905 Houston ap- 
pointed a business representative and in 1909 Minneapo- 
lis created the office of executive agent. The following 
rules and regulations outline the work in the latter city: 

The executive agent, as provided in section 11, shall have 
direct supervision over the school properties and the mainte- 
nance thereof. He shall generally represent the board in all 
negotiations relating to the construction, reconstruction, repair, 
and maintenance of school properties. He shall supervise the 
purchase, receipt, and distribution of all supplies, books, and 
materials, as authorized by the board. All requisitions for the 
delivery of supplies shall be approved by him. 

He shall have authority to engage and discharge such em- 
ployees as are necessary to the conduct of the activities ex- 
pressed herein and shall report thereon to the committee on 
buildings and supplies for the final approval of the board. 

He shall, prior to the first regular meeting of the board in June 
of each year, prepare a list of janitors and other employees for 
the various schools and such list shall have attached thereto 
the salary proposed to be paid each person therein shown. 
Such list, when approved over the signature of the executive 
agent, shall be delivered by him to the committee on buildings 
and supplies for submission to the board. 

He shall submit to the board monthly a report considering in 
appropriate detail information relating to the construction, re- 
construction, repair, and distribution of school supplies, with 
such suggestions as may be appropriate thereto. 

He shall attend all meetings of the board and, when requested, 
the meetings of standing committees. 

He shall devote his entire time to the interests of the board, 
and maintain such regular hours as may be prescribed by the 
board, at its office. 

He shall give a bond for the faithful performance of his duties, 
in such sum as the board may determine. 1 

1 Report Commissioner of Education, 1911, p. 120. 



116 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

January i, 1913, the board of education of Rochester, 
N. Y., authorized a permanent bureau of school effi- 
ciency. The functions of the efficiency bureau were 
outlined as follows: 

1. Receiving and keeping on file all reports of enrolment, 
attendance, and progress of children in the schools. 

2. Analyzing reports received. 

3. Presenting salient features to supervising officers. 

4. Reporting situations to individual schools. 

5. Measuring the efficiency of local educational work with 
that of other cities. 

The files of the bureau contain the following informa- 
tion: 

1. For each school grade and special class: 

a. Enrolment from September to June. 

b. Month end register. 

c. Attendance. 

2. Elimination from school by permanent card record — causes, 
grades, ages, months, and schools are recorded. 

3. Progress through school for each school and grade. 

4. Contributions of teachers and principals who have visited 
schools elsewhere. 

5. Replies to questionnaires and all other inquiries about 
Rochester schools since 191 2. 

6. Superintendents' reports from other cities, state and fed- 
eral educational bulletins, and other educational periodicals. 

7. Newspaper clippings on educational matters. 

8. Results of researches and surveys. 

9. Blank forms of other cities. 

10. Inventory records. 

11. Per capita cost of each school, department, kind of edu- 
cational work, etc. 

12. Special file of net enrolment from January to December 
for city appropriation basis. 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 117 

The following is the list of the office force : one director, 
one assistant superintendent, two stenographers, and 
two clerks. 

The need for the gathering of data showing the actual 
conditions in the high schools is obvious. If secondary 
education is to be scientifically managed, and if business 
principles are to be established to measure its efficiency, 
facts must be collected and used as a basis for this 
administration. Mere personal bias and unsupported 
opinion must be eliminated from the business manager's 
office. 

Typical Problems. — Among the problems upon which 
data must be gathered are the following: First, per 
capita cost per high school and per elementary pupil; 
second, per capita cost for each course of study in the 
high school; third, per capita cost for each year in the 
high school; fourth, per capita cost for each fixed four- 
year curriculum in the high school; fifth, average num- 
ber of pupils per class for most efficient work; sixth, 
maximum number of recitations that a teacher should 
have per day and per week; seventh, maximum number 
of recitations that a pupil may carry per day and per 
week in each year of his career; eighth, effects, educa- 
tional and physical, upon the pupil and the school in 
limiting the amount of work. 

Superintendent Spaulding of Newton. — We need more 
studies and reports of high school conditions, budgets, 
etc., similar to that one recent]y issued by Superintendent 
Spaulding, of Newton, Mass. Superintendent Spaul- 
ding has shown graphically the equivalent educational 
values attached to the different high school studies as 
measured by the purchasing power of a dollar expended 
for class instruction. He adds: "I greatly doubt that 



118 • THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

we educational administrators show any greater wis- 
dom than the average housewife in the disposition of 
our always limited budgets. Unquestionably the first 
step toward improvement both for the housewife and 
for the school administrator is to secure definite, de- 
tailed, and significant knowledge of the actual disposi- 
tion of the budget." 1 

Again the report shows the apportionment of every 
dollar expended for instruction: 

Comparison of the costs of the same unit under different con- 
ditions is perhaps the best starting-point for a campaign to re- 
duce unit cost or to improve the quality of units of service. 
To be of any practical value such comparisons must be made of 
costs arising under conditions that can be thoroughly studied. 
Of what earthly use are our interminable comparisons of teachers' 
salaries and annual expenditures per pupil from one end of the 
country to the other, when we know nothing, when we attempt 
to find out nothing, when it might be practically impossible if 
we tried to get adequate knowledge concerning the quality 
and quantity of teaching service rendered for which varying 
salaries are paid, and the amount and character of instruction 
given on which per pupil costs are based? 

Every school system presents within itself abundant oppor- 
tunity for the comparison of unit costs; the conditions under 
which these costs arise are at hand, subject to any kind and 
degree of study that may be necessary. 1 

After graphically showing the cost per one pupil 
recitation in the Newton secondary schools, Superin- 
tendent Spaulding raises the pertinent query: "Why is 
a pupil recitation in English costing 7.2 cents in the 
vocational school, while it only costs 5 cents in the 
technical school? Is the vocational English 44 per cent 
superior to the 'technical' English or 44 per cent more 
1 Report Newton School Committee, 191 2, p. 100. 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 119 

difficult to secure? Why are we paying 80 per cent 
more in the vocational than in the technical school for 
the same unit of instruction in mathematics? Why 
does a pupil recitation in science cost from 55 to 67 
per cent more in the Newton high school than in either 
of the other two? All the conditions under which 
these varying costs arise are at hand. By studying 
them we can answer these and scores of other similar 
questions. More than that, so far as the conditions 
are within our control, we can make changes which will 
vary costs and quality of service to the end that we may 
secure a maximum service at a minimum of cost in every 
school and in every subject." 1 

Because the people of any given community in re- 
lation to their high school system are in very much the 
same position as the stockholders or owners in a great 
corporation, the directors of which should be willing to 
pay large and increasing dividends, the following state- 
ment found in the annual report of the Newton school 
committee for 191 2, on page 32, is very significant: 
"If you want a detailed and intelligible analysis of every 
expenditure of the past year; if you want all the prin- 
cipal items of expenditure compared with similar items 
of other years, especially of the year immediately pre- 
ceding the last; if you want to know how expenditures 
for the principal items are running for the present time; 
if you want adequate reasons for every expenditure; 
if you want full explanations for all increases and de- 
creases in expenditures for various items; in short if 
you want a presentation of the actual administration 
of the Newton educational policy set forth, just as fully, 
and clearly, as the policy itself has been outlined and 

1 Report Newton School Committee, 1912, p. 103. 



120 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

explained; — you will find all these things in the following 
pages." 

If other school committees and superintendents would 
make similar reports the practice of school administra- 
tion would improve by strides. With many such studies 
available the student of educational affairs would be in 
a position to make fair and logical comparisons between 
schools and school systems. 

There must be the same development in the estab- 
lishment of unit costs in school affairs as there is now in 
the business and commercial world. Per capita cost 
for each subject in the high school, as, for example, 
Latin I, Algebra II, Chemistry II, Manual Training VI, 
should be shown for each school. Any striking increase 
or decrease should be commented on and the tables 
containing such costs should be cumulative. Again, unit 
costs should be established for first-year work, second- 
year work, etc., per organized curriculum, as, for ex- 
ample, in high schools offering several curriculums (the 
Classical, the Latin, the Latin Scientific, the Modern 
Language, the English, and the Commercial) the cost 
per student per year in each year in his career should be 
worked out. In curriculums where the work given the 
girls differs largely from that given the boys these units 
should be carried further and should show the cost for 
each sex, as, for example, manual-training cost for boys 
compared with the domestic-science cost for girls. 
Wherever possible, standards of equipment cost should 
be established so that in any given city enough, but not 
too much, money is invested in school equipment. 

Methods of Obtaining Per Capitas. — The methods of 
obtaining per capita costs (the items to be included) 
differ; therefore there is grave danger in offhand com- 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 121 

parisons. Extra items as night schools, vacation schools, 
playgrounds, etc., come in to increase the cost of ele- 
mentary education in some cities. Length of school 
terms, size of classes, studies offered, and units of 
measurement all have to be considered in making con- 
clusions. In the determination of costs, then, methods 
must be uniform everywhere or no comparisons are possi- 
ble. Analysis and classification of expenditures must be 
carried under same ledger headings. There should be 
two main divisions, too, in the expenditures: those for 
educational administration and those for the physical 
administration. 

Legitimate Variations in Per Capitas. — Some varia- 
tion in per capita costs in our secondary schools is to 
be expected, even in cities of relatively the same size, 
due to natural, economic, and social conditions. The 
slightest comparative survey, however, of the available 
data concerning per capita expenditures reveals varia- 
tions that are not only startling but surely more than 
should be allowed to exist. More investigation in this 
field is needed for the purpose of getting data for a closer 
relation between theory and practice. 

For the same reason the great range in variation in the 
matter of the ratio of secondary expenditures per pupil 
to elementary cannot be justified. In bulletin No. 5 
of the United States Bureau of Education for 191 2 
Doctor Harlan Updegraff sets forth the results of a care- 
ful study of the school expenses of 103 out of the 184 
cities in the United States having a population of 30,000 
or over. Referring to table 1 5 , page 3 7 , the author states : 

It may be seen (1) that there is a wide variation in the rela- 
tive average cost of elementary and high schools, (2) that no 



122 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

territorial lines or division of cities by population can be drawn 
in making the differentiation between them, each section of 
the country and one State, Pennsylvania, being represented in 
almost every column. The extreme variation in all the cities 
included is 2.71. The extreme variations shown in the tables 
indicate that proper balances are not being maintained in the 
school expenditures of some cities. More money in some cases 
should be spent upon the elementary schools; in others less 
money should be spent upon the high schools. The retardation 
and elimination statistics of such cities as have extreme ratios 
should be carefully studied in this connection. For instance, 
Baltimore, which has just been shown spends too little on its 
elementary schools rather than too much on its high schools, 
has a high percentage of retardation and elimination. More 
money is needed in that city for elementary schools, both to 
maintain its present curriculum and to widen the scope of those 
schools, although the expenses of the high school should not be 
diminished. In some cities it would be a far better distri- 
bution of public funds to take away from high schools having 
high average cost, and high percentage of funds devoted to 
them, and to add the same to the broadening of courses in the 
elementary schools in order to meet the needs of those who are 
backward or who are losing interest in the present curriculum. 
This is true especially if the city has high percentage of retar- 
dation and elimination. 

The question arises as to what is the range of proper ratio 
between average costs of elementary and high schools? Taken 
all in all the best answer for all cities is the ratio should lie be- 
tween 1.80 and 2.60 — a range of .80 — with 2.16 as the best 
representative amount. The two former figures are limits of 
the middle 50 per cent of the entire list of cities, and any varia- 
tion below and above these amounts should have reasonable 
justification. 1 

Range of Per Capitas. — The figures given by Updegraff 
in table 30 show that the per capita cost, based on enrol- 
ment, of instruction, operation, and maintenance of 

bulletin, 1912; No. 5 U. S. Bureau of Education. 



PER CAPITA COSTS 



SECONDARY EDUCATION 



POP. OVER 300000 

ST. LOUIS MO. 
BUFFALO N.Y. 



POP. 100 000 - 300 OOO 

SCRANTON PA. 
MEMPHIS TENN. 



POP. SO 000 - 100 000 

HOBOKEN N.J. 
WILKES BARRE PA. 



POP. 30000-50 000 

HAVERHILL MASS. 



KNOXVILLE TENN. 



COST 

* 39.20 

45.50 

73.30 
25.89 

97.S5 
25.47 

26.12 
11.12 



Chart X 



123 



124 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

secondary schools in cities of 300,000 or over in 1910 
ranged from $45.50 in Buffalo to $89.20 in St. Louis; in 
cities of 100,000-300,000 from $25.89 in Memphis to 
$73.30 in Scranton, Pa.; in cities of 50,000-100,000 from 
$25.47 in Wilkes-Barre to $97.55 in Hoboken, N. J.; 
while in cities of 30,000-50,000 the range of difference 
was from $11.12 in Knoxville, Tenn., to $26.12 in Haver- 
hill, Mass. From the above we can see that the 
range of difference for all cities 30,000 and over in popu- 
lation is from $11.12 in Knoxville to $97.55 in Hobo- 
ken, N. J. Chart X gives a graphical illustration of 
the situation. 

From the figures in table 32 of UpdegrafFs report, 
showing the average annual cost per pupil, based on 
enrolment, of instruction, operation, and maintenance of 
elementary schools, including kindergartens, and of sec- 
ondary schools and the relation of these costs to each 
other, we find that in cities having a population of 
300,000 or over in 19 10 the range of difference in cost 
per pupil — ratio of elementary to secondary schools is 
from $1.75 in Minneapolis to $3.90 in Baltimore; in 
cities having a population of 100,000-300,000 the range 
was from $1.66 in Paterson, N. J., to $3.15 in Scranton, 
Pa.; in cities of 50,000-100,000 from $1.33 in Wilkes- 
Barre to $4.04 in Passaic, N. J.; and in cities of 30,000- 
50,000 from $1.41 in Topeka, Kan., to $3.50 in Pueblo, 
Colo. Chart XI gives a clear graphical illustration of the 
above. 

Interpretation of a Given Per Capita. — Aside from the 
general civic problems growing out of su^ch figures, it will 
be seen at once that many misconceptions concerning 
expenditures per pupil for educational purposes could 
easily arise. The real test of the willingness of any city 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 125 

to do its duty in the educational support of its children 
in any type of school may be measured more accurately 
by the per capita cost per adult member of the city's 
population than by the expenditure per capita of the 
school population. 

Per Capita for Elementary and Secondary Pupils Com- 
pared. — Another of the questions that will require care- 
ful co-operative investigation and study on the part of 
the business manager and his staff*, the superintendent 
of schools, and the school board is that of deciding what 
proportion of the school revenue should be devoted to 
the elementary grades and what proportion to secondary 
instruction. The classes known as the grades form, per- 
haps, the most important part of the entire school system. 
Therefore it is essential that in spending the budget 
the cost of high school education should not be in- 
creased to the detriment of the elementary school devel- 
opment. What proportion of the budget should be ex- 
pended in each division of the school organization is an 
important and fundamental question in the business 
administration. The allotment of the proper amount 
for expenditure for each grade of work should be made, 
then, only after careful study. In cases where this 
apportionment seems to fall below the amount required 
for any given item, increased appropriations for the sup- 
port of the schools must be asked for, based upon this 
critical analysis of costs and proposed expenditures. 
The whole system should be articulated and the super- 
intendent should work directly with the business man- 
ager in bringing about increased appropriations for the 
schools. In this connection the following, from an ad- 
dress by Superintendent Holland at St. Louis in 191 2, is 
particularly interesting: 



RATIO OF EXPENDITURES 

<PER CAPITA) 

SECONDARY TO ELEMENTARY 



POP, OVER 300000 



BALTIMORE MD. 



MINNEAPOLIS MINN. 



POP. 100000 - 300000 

SCRANTON PA. 
PATERSON N.J. 



POP. SO 000 - 100000 

PASSAIC N.Y. 
WILKES BARRE PA. 



RATIO 
3.90 
1.75 

3.1 S 
1.66 



POP. 30000 - 50000 

PUEBLO COL. 
TOPEKA KAS. 



Chart XI 



3.SO 
1.41 



126 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 127 

So far as I have been able to learn there is no school system 
in this country that, to-day, is spending too much money on its 
graded schools, but it is not difficult to give the names of several 
large cities that are spending entirely too large amounts on their 
secondary schools. 

Unfortunately the more intelligent forces of a community do 
not wait for an analysis of school expenditures to make known 
their wishes; they are especially insistent in their demand that 
the high schools be properly cared for. Generally speaking only 
a small group of these same individuals will visit a ward or 
graded school and demand that more money and effort be ex- 
pended upon the younger children. As a consequence the great- 
est disproportion in expenditure can be found among those cities 
where expert educational leadership has been ignored, and where 
disproportionate expenditures follow the wishes of a small, but 
powerful, group of citizens who do not understand that the 
granting of their demands by the school authorities will entail 
hardship upon hundreds of teachers in the grades, lower the 
efficiency of the whole public school system, and will be the di- 
rect cause of increasing the school mortality at an alarming rate. 

The expenditures in the city of Louisville for secondary edu- 
cation have been and are still out of all proportion to what has 
been spent on the elementary schools in that city. 

Superintendent Holland gives the details in establish- 
ing the truth of the foregoing statement as follows : 

Louisville is a city of slightly less than one-quarter of a mil- 
lion inhabitants and yet a year ago it was attempting to main- 
tain seven separate high schools. Three of these schools were 
for girls, two for boys, one — the commercial high school — for 
both boys and girls, and a colored high school for both boys 
and girls. When we consider that the city of St. Louis with 
a population of 687,000 inhabitants — three times as large as 
Louisville — is to-day maintaining but five secondary schools, we 
can understand that, relatively speaking, Louisville has been 
neglecting her elementary schools in which 90 per cent of the 
entire school enrolment is to be found. 1 

1 Proc. N. E. A., 1912; p. 468. 



128 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

In a recent investigation by the board of education of 
Louisville it was found that in comparing that city with 
Indianapolis, cities of the same size, the enrolment in 
the two Indianapolis high schools was in excess of 3,600, 
while in the seven high schools of Louisville there were 
2,700 pupils or 900 less. Further, the cost per pupil 
based on enrolment was $58.77 in Indianapolis com- 
pared with $76.76 in Louisville. Again the board 
learned that Indianapolis spent 17.7 per cent of total 
revenue on the high school, while Louisville spent 27.3 
per cent. Also it discovered that Indianapolis spent 
$34 per child enrolled in elementary grades, compared 
with $23.32 by Louisville. This difference between 
these two cities was in excess of $250,000 or approxi- 
mately $450 for every graded schoolroom in Louisville. 

Since this investigation Superintendent Holland has 
this to say about the conditions: 

Even yet the expenditure of 23 or 24 per cent of the school 
revenue on the high schools of Louisville is abnormally high. 
This disproportion in expenditure for elementary and secondary 
education in Louisville is probably no greater than it is in 
many other cities of this country. 1 

One of the fundamental questions the business manager 
and superintendent must keep in mind, then, in the de- 
termination of the distribution of the school budget is: 
Are the school expenses distributed approximately as in 
other cities and are the items in the budget much higher 
or lower in cost than the corresponding items in other 
cities in the same general class? Referring again to Su- 
perintendent Spaulding's report, we find that in Newton 
37 per cent of the total expenditures were for the high 
schools. This is considerably higher for Newton than 
1 Proc, N. E, A., 191 2; p. 469. 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 



129 



many of the Massachusetts towns, but the explanation 
lies in the fact that 25 per cent of the pupils in Newton 
are in the high schools, while in the towns around New- 
ton the per cent is but 15 per cent. Superintendent 
Spaulding shows that the high school enrolment in- 
creased at a greater per cent than did the high school 
expenditures. 

The per capita costs for other cities in the metropoli- 
tan district as given in Superintendent Spaulding's re- 
port are as follows: 



City 

Boston 

Cambridge 

Lynn 

Springfield 

Somerville 

Maiden 

Everett 

Quincy 

Chelsea 

Waltham 

Medford 

Beverley 

Melrose 

Town 

Brookline 

Arlington 

Milton 

Belmont 

Wellesley 

Weston 

Winchester 

Watertown 

Totals, towns only 



SECONDARY 
SCHOOLS 



$71 
62 

49 
76 

44 
59 
61 
46 
62 

49 
46 

5o 
43 



$%3 
5o 

102 
62 
7i 

105 
56 
61 
7i 



ELEMENTARY 
SCHOOLS 



$42.49 
32.57 
30-74 
41.38 
3I.06 

31-54 
29.29 

27-35 
27.04 
41.14 

32.13 
38.82 

36.34 



$61 
32 
58 
3i 
5i 
67 
38 
34 
46 



Report Newton School Committee, p. 116. 



130 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Another important thing to bear in mind is the pro- 
portion the secondary school budget is to the total bud- 
get of the city and the per capita cost per citizen for the 
secondary schools maintained in any town — both the 
total cost and cost for each type of high school. Some 
very fruitful comparisons might be shown graphically, 
as, for example, the cost of high schools compared with 
other departments of city expenditure, such as parks, 
board of public works, fire department, etc. The busi- 
ness manager and school superintendent will do well, 
therefore, to let the people know exactly the educational 
situation in the community. To refer again to Super- 
intendent Spaulding's last annual report, we find on 
pages 1 1 7-1 1 8 the following: 

What Valuation Do We Place on Education? The final an- 
swer to our efforts to determine how much and what propor- 
tion of our revenues we can afford to spend on education will not 
be found in rough comparisons of expenditures here and in other 
places, in which we take little account of the local conditions and 
the educational activities. The general question that we have 
to decide is this: Is it better, do we prefer to pay the cost — 
made as low as possible by economical and efficient management 
— of carrying out our school policy; or is it better to reduce the 
quantity, or quality, or both quantity and quality, of our educa- 
tional activities, in order that we may reduce the cost? 

This general question resolves itself into such concrete ques- 
tions as these: Shall we pay $67 to $70 annually per pupil to 
afford 700 boys and girls a commercial or technical education, 
or shall we save our $67 to $70 and let those 700 boys and girls 
go uneducated? Shall we spend $65 to $70 per pupil each year 
to fit 800 boys and girls for college or other higher schools, or 
to give them a general academic education; or shall we save our 
$65 to $70 and let those 800 boys and girls either go uneducated 
or seek their education elsewhere than in our public schools? 
Shall we spend $140 each per year — of which the State will 
repay us one-half — to teach 300 boys and girls trades and skilled 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 131 

occupations; or shall we save our half of $140 and let these 300 
boys and girls make shift as best they may as unskilled workers? 
Shall we spend $40 per pupil, or a little more, and keep our 
elementary school classes of such size that teachers can do effi- 
cient work, or shall we save a few dollars per pupil by enlarging 
these classes until we seriously impair the efficiency of their work? 
Shall we continue to spend $30 to $32 per pupil for kindergarten 
training, or shall we abolish this part of the school system and 
save the cost of it? There are scores of similar questions which 
might be asked, but these are typical and perfectly fair; be- 
cause if we are to reduce our school expenditures we shall have 
to do it through our answers to such questions as these. 
The Newton School Policy Cannot Be " satisfied." 

But where is the end? It is impossible to " satisfy" the de- 
mands of the schools, it has been charged. The charge is justi- 
fied; but so far from being a reproach, it should be regarded as 
high praise of the school policy and of the spirit of its adminis- 
tration. Satisfaction means stagnation. When any policy or 
when the administrators of any policy become satisfied, it is 
high time for a change, for no further progress is to be expected. 
The policy of the Newton schools does not admit of satisfaction 
so long as any educable boy or girl of the community is growing 
up without education, so long as the education provided for any 
boy or girl is susceptible of improvement. 

" The business management of a system of schools is to be 
judged by the adequacy of the system of accounting and of 
reporting which is used, just to the degree that such records are 
a measure of business efficiency in other lines of human en- 
deavor. In so far as we have commonly accepted standards for 
school buildings, one may judge of the efficiency of the school 
plant. Efficiency may further be determined by the degree to 
which the business management has succeeded in standardizing 
supplies and equipment to the end that waste is eliminated. It 
cannot be too strongly urged that neither expenditure per unit 
of population nor expenditure per pupil measures the efficiency 
of a school system. The question is always not the amount 
spent, but the return secured for the money expended." 1 

1 Bulletin, 1913; No. 13, U. S. Bureau of Ed., p. 5. 



132 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Financial Reporting. — A common weak point in the 
business management of most school systems is that 
nearly all of the financial reports give too many details 
and too little real information. This may be because, 
to prevent suspicion of corruption, all items, no matter 
how trivial, are listed. This method, however, has little 
accounting value for the student of accounts. 

Financial statements do not have to contain all classes 
of entries found on the books. Both the educational 
policy and the business management would be more effi- 
ciently worked out under a somewhat different plan of 
organization than now prevails. The development of 
standards in business administration will be made pos- 
sible when we have more adequate reporting in this 
field. 

Qualifications of Administrators. — At the present time 
there is a particular need for higher qualifications for 
those who seek to enter the important professions of 
superintendent, supervisor, or principal. Gradually the 
standards of qualifications have been raised for the teach- 
ers, but there has been no corresponding increase in 
those set for the higher and more important positions. 
It is not hard to find places where men wholly incompe- 
tent for the work they are elected to do have not only 
been put into office but continued there. Examples are 
not rare where high school principals whose qualifica- 
tions for that position were not adequate have been ele- 
vated to the position of superintendent of schools, and 
who pose before the people as, and accept the title of, 
professor. It means nothing, however, as every teacher 
of track athletics or manual training is given the same 
title in small communities. If the same standards of 
efficiency are to be applied to school administrators as 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 133 

are applied elsewhere, it will mean that when a man has 
ceased to be efficient he must give place to another. A 
further increase in the efficiency of the school adminis- 
tration will come as the result of junctional management. 
The effort should be made to segregate the important 
educational functions now being performed by the school 
superintendent, and then to arrange the scheme of man- 
agement so that he will have an able assistant and co- 
worker to handle the business and financial side of the 
school. The present situation of the school superin- 
tendent with his many and varied duties is the first 
cause of the inefficiency resulting. 

Professional Standard for High School Teachers. — 
Again, if the high schools of this country are to have 
developed a standard of work and a method of organi- 
zation and administration which will be in any way com- 
parable to those found in the business world, there must 
be secured, before this result can be brought about, a 
larger number of better teachers who believe in teaching 
as a profession and who have a code of professional 
ethics of as high an order as those of other professions. 
The teachers of our high schools must be better pre- 
pared before being permitted to enter upon the work of 
instructing the pupils at this most important stage in 
their development. The teachers, even in our city high 
schools, do not spend as much time in preparation for 
their work as the members of other professions do. Nor 
has teaching been made a profession with as definite 
and adequate standards, set by the profession itself, and 
by law, for entrance to it, as is the case with the pro- 
fessions of medicine, law, and dentistry. Before we can 
hope to secure such standards we must improve the con- 
ditions for work so that we may attract the best possi- 



134 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ble teachers. Thorndike 1 shows the training of high 
school teachers to be as follows: "Of a hundred men, 
ten have had less than four years beyond the elementary 
school; forty-five have had from four to eight years; 
thirty have had eight years; and fifteen have had nine 
years or more. Nearly three fifths have had six, seven, 
or eight years. Seven per cent had from two to four years 
of education beyond the elementary schools, and about 
sixteen or seventeen per cent had from four to six years." 

Need of Men Teachers. — In 1900 the number of pub- 
lic school teachers reached 423,062, with approximately 
30 men in each 100 teachers. In 1909 there were 506,040 
teachers, but the number of men dropped to approxi- 
mately 21 per 100. This relative elimination of men from 
the public schools has been going on steadily and rapidly 
since 1880. There is grave danger in this elimination 
of men from the profession, throwing, as it does, the 
education of our boys on the shoulders of women, and 
immature women often at that. For salaries like those 
offered to men in the majority of our American high 
schools, it is clearly impossible to obtain the services 
of men of good native ability, sufficient scholarship, 
training, and experience to enable them to do satis- 
factory work. Teachers are expected to give their entire 
time to school work, and many boards have rules which 
forbid the teachers engaging in any other line of re- 
munerative work during the hours the school is not in 
session. There must, therefore, be an increase in the 
pay offered men if we would check their gradual elimina- 
tion from the teaching ranks. 

Centralization Tendency. — With the centralization of 
power and the establishment of small boards of educa- 
1 "Education," p. 255. 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 135 

tion the tendency has been gradually to lessen the bane- 
ful influences of politics on the school system. One of 
the chief problems of the American school superin- 
tendent is first to secure a competent force of teachers 
and then so to organize them that their continued pro- 
fessional growth is assured. Both of these things are 
impossible in the city that is suffering from political 
interference. The teacher, principal, or supervisor who 
is judged in his or her work by other than educational 
standards, or retained in office for any other reason than 
demonstrated efficiency, is preventing the building up 
of a spirit that will attract teachers to the city be- 
cause of the opportunities for professional service and 
secure tenure. Freedom from politics must then be 
ranked first in the list of things that will result in im- 
proved conditions for the teacher in his chosen field 
of work. 

Professional Growth. — To-day more and more empha- 
sis is being placed upon the necessity for the experienced 
teacher to increase her intellectual development by fur- 
ther study and to restore her health by travel and recre- 
ation, so that she will continue to grow and thus to meet 
the new and more complex conditions that are found each 
year in every branch of high school work. To bring 
about this result it is necessary for teachers, principals, 
and supervisors to be granted leaves of absence for study, 
or travel, or both. 1 Many cities are considering the plan 
of granting each teacher one year in seven on full or 
part pay, with or without a written agreement on the 
part of the teacher to return to the city granting the 
leave. The more progressive cities do not exact such an 
agreement. Teachers are not local in their influence, 

1 Spokane. 



136 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

and the greater the mobility of the profession the greater 
are the chances for the development of the profession as 
such. It is too narrow a policy to compel teachers to 
forego larger fields of work made possible by their added 
development and to return simply because they have 
been recipients of a leave of absence with pay. A better 
policy would be to grant the leave as a reward for the 
previous seven years' faithful and satisfactory service 
rather than as the first payment, in advance, for ser- 
vices to be rendered at some future period. 

Teachers' Pension Systems. — In the past few years 
there has been considerable advance made in the develop- 
ment of pension systems for public school teachers. Sev- 
eral States, Virginia, Maryland, Rhode Island, Wiscon- 
sin, New Jersey, and New York, have enacted legislation 
looking toward a State policy of pensions for the public 
school teacher, and still other States have authorized 
the larger cities to inaugurate this necessary reform. " At 
the present day the consideration of pensions is being 
urged most strongly both from the standpoint of social 
justice and from the standpoint of increased efficiency 
of commercial and industrial organizations. The ten- 
dency is to enter into such plans upon insufficient data, 
and to set up systems which can only invite disaster and 
disappointment. Before any State approves the sys- 
tem of pensions for its teachers the data for a complete 
study of the problem should be gathered and the best 
possible advice secured. The actuarial point of view is 
not the only point of view to be considered in the estab- 
lishment of a pension system, but it is an indispensable 
point of view. Those concerned in these problems can- 
not fail to find in the experiences of the pension system 
of New South Wales, of the New Jersey teachers' sys- 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 137 

tern, and other experiments information of the most 
direct and practical significance." * 

Wyoming, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, 
Washington, and Vermont, and the District of Colum- 
bia have all had bills recently looking toward the es- 
tablishment of pension systems. Unfortunately, many 
States are not only inactive in pushing this matter so 
long left unprovided for by State enactments, but they 
have prevented in many cases large cities within their 
borders from doing so on their own initiative and re- 
sources. Two States, Pennsylvania and New Hamp- 
shire, are unable, without amending their State consti- 
tutions, to enact any legislation of this character. 
Georgia, Indiana, and Michigan have very recently failed 
to have the proposed pension bills passed by their State 
legislatures. Chicago, New York, Brooklyn, Boston, 
and Detroit all have pension systems. Cities of the 
first class in Kansas may establish such a system. 
Philadelphia and San Francisco also have a sort of retire- 
ment fund but not comparable to the above. 

The obligation to care for an old teacher is one of the 
fundamental obligations of a city or State. It is a mat- 
ter of our relations to others in human society ; and while 
the development of this sense of duty on the part of 
society is slow, it is coming, and even now we can see 
beginnings of some promise. It will come more easily 
and be of more value when it is brought about by the 
growth in the teaching ranks of a real professional spirit 
and by the development of more scholarly standards. 

"Pensions are justified upon practically two grounds; 
first, those of a large social justice ; second, as a necessary 

1 Seventh Annual Report, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement 
of Teaching, New York, p. 23. 



138 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

condition to an efficient public school system." On 
page 77 of the Seventh Annual Report of the Carnegie 
Foundation the following question is raised and answered: 

Will a State legislature and a State governor administer justly 
a matter in which the general government and the chief execu- 
tive have been so weak? In answer to this it may be said that 
a pension system in which the employee contributes does not 
present the same opportunity for political exploitation that the 
Civil War pensions have presented. The man who believes in 
the future of his country and democratic progress will be slow 
to admit that either Congress or the State governments will be 
found permanently incapable of carrying out so simple an obli- 
gation. If our democracy cannot learn from such an experience 
as that of the Civil War pensions, it is helpless to solve the 
problems that confront it on every hand. In any event, the 
argument that our government is not honest enough to conduct 
a justly planned relief system for its employees is a weak reason 
for inaugurating an unsatisfactory system. 

One of the great weaknesses of our public school system to-day 
lies in the fact that only a small number of men can be induced 
to undertake permanent careers in it. Before we can hope for 
the best results in education, we must make a career for an am- 
bitious man possible in the public schools. To do this, dignity 
and security must be given to the teacher's calling, and probably 
no one step could be taken which would be more influential in 
inducing able men and women to adopt the profession of teacher 
in the public schools than to attach to that vocation the security 
which a pension brings. 1 

Cost of Living. — With the continued and rapid rise in 
the cost of living it has become more and more difficult 
for the teachers, particularly those who have others de- 
pendent upon them, to make adequate provisions for old 
age. Therefore it is becoming imperative that some 
method be devised to pension them. 

1 Seventh Annual Report, Carnegie Foundation, p. 70. 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 139 

Freedom from Political Influence. — Before a city will 
receive the full return that each teacher is capable of 
giving it must offer inducements to its teachers for effi- 
cient and professional service of a higher and higher order 
each year. Wherever it is generally understood that 
" ability" and "pull" are required for promotion, or 
"pull" alone, the rank and file of teachers soon become 
convinced that they have no great chance for advance- 
ment and allow their work, therefore, to become a life- 
less matter of routine. The great impulse due to the 
inspiration born of hope for advancement is lacking in 
such a system. The necessity in this connection of some 
adequate scheme for the measurement of teachers' effi- 
ciency is becoming a serious problem for the business 
manager. Many cities are losing immeasurably through 
this lack of a standard which will make it possible to pro- 
mote on the "efficiency" basis and on that alone. The 
selection, promotion, and retirement of teachers, prin- 
cipals, and supervisors must, then, be refined along these 
most liberal and progressive lines. 

Larger salaries will also have to be paid, and that 
immediately, if we are to maintain even the present un- 
satisfactory standard of teaching efficiency in our sec- 
ondary schools. The salary paid a teacher may not be 
a just return for the services rendered, and it may not 
represent the value of a teacher to the community, but 
it does represent only too well the small amount the 
city is obliged to pay because the teacher has not the 
keenness of the trained business man or woman in look- 
ing out for his or her own interests. As one result of 
the writer's study of the problem of increased com- 
pensation for high school teachers, he is convinced that 
no material benefit will be obtained until there is an 



140 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

increase in the teacher's efficiency with a correspond- 
ingly larger accomplishment in valuable returns to the 
community. 

Thorndike gives the facts for the salaries of teachers 
in public high schools as follows: "The median salary 
for the men is $900; that is, of the men engaged in public 
school work there are as many who receive less than $900 
as there are receiving more than $900. Of a hundred 
such men five receive less than $500; fifty-one receive 
from $500 up to $1,000; twenty-seven from $1,000 up 
to $1,500; ten from $1,500 up to $2,000; and seven from 
$2,000 up. Over one half of them receive from $600 to 
$1,000 inclusive. For the women the median salary is 
$650. Of a hundred women twenty-two receive less 
than $500; fifty-nine from $500 to $1,000; fourteen from 
$1,000 to $1,500; and five, $1,500 or over." 1 

The United States Bureau of Labor found that the 
wholesale prices in 191 1 were 44.1 per cent higher than 
in 1897. Measured by this standard, a salary of a thou- 
sand dollars would have shrunk nearly 50 per cent by 
191 1. In June, 191 2, retail food prices were 61.7 per 
cent higher than the average for 1896. 

Sound Accounting the Remedy. — Every city school 
system needs more adequate accounting and reporting, 
however simple these may be. Sound school administra- 
tion and educational theories can rest only upon sound 
financial foundations. Competent accounting and pub- 
licity will soon put an end to unsound educational prac- 
tices. The information that the public desires from the 
financial agents of the school organization is merely a 
simple, honest, and intelligible statement of the actual 
status of the school's affairs. In educating the public so 

1 E. L. Thorndike, "Education," p. 250. 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 141 

that they will support the school system in its now rapid 
development, due to the ever enlarging of the field of its 
activities, it is essential to emphasize the fact that a 
low tax rate is only one of many advantages that a town 
may offer to prospective citizens, and every effort should 
be made to show the economic value of providing liber- 
ally for the schools. Aside from a moderate tax rate, 
other points of attractiveness should be pointed out as 
means of increasing the population, as, for example, 
fine schools, good parks, well-paved driveways, and 
adequate fire protection. 

Larger Aspects of the Problem. — To think for a whole 
State in terms of " scientific management" of its high 
schools and teaching force will show our problem in a 
still broader and more fundamental light. To get some 
accurate information on the exact situation and status 
of the high schools in a State as a whole, a careful study 
has been made for the last three years of the high schools 
of Kansas. Judging from these surveys, no part of the 
school system in Kansas stands in greater need of reor- 
ganization than do the high schools. It is not unlikely 
that similar conditions prevail generally throughout the 
country. The growing importance of scientific manage- 
ment has tended to make the haphazard methods in use 
generally all the more noticeable. In fact, the problems 
are such that they require for their solution a high type 
of men. Granted that the conditions may not be any 
worse in Kansas than in the other States of the Union, 
it still is clear that the problems are not being met to-day 
in as satisfactory a manner as we could expect, even with 
the present corps of school administrators. Without 
disparagement of the profession, progress must come if 
the field of education is to be standardized, 



142 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



The following charts and tables demonstrate the truth 
of this statement: 



TABLE I 

Sources of Preparation of the High School Teachers for a State 



K.U 

K. S.A. C 

K.S.N....... 

K. U. andK. S.A. C. 

K. U. and other colleges 

K. U., K. S. A. C, and K. S. N. 
Other colleges or universities . . . 
K. S. A. C. and other colleges . . . 

K.U. andK. S.N 

K. U. and other normal 

K. S. N. and K. S. A. C 

K. S. A. C. and other normal — 

K. S. N. and other colleges 

K. S. N. and other normal 

Other normal and other colleges 

Other normal 

High school 

Special school 

Totals 



214 

5i 

167 

11 

68 

1 

11 

46 

7 

13 

2 

76 

5 

44 

42 

24 

25 



1,198 



2d 



26 

3 

68 
2 

11 
o 

87 

1 

7 

1 
o 
1 
11 
8 

19 
16 

4 

1 



266 



3d 



4 

o 

14 
o 

3 

o 

27 
o 
I 
o 

2 

o 

4 

1 

4 
3 

6 
1 



70 



Acad- 
emies 



3 
2 

o 
o 

4 

o 

62 

o 

I 
I 
o 
o 

3 

o 

14 

2 

6 

4 



Totals 



247 

56 

249 

13 
86 

567 
12 

55 
9 
15 
3 
94 
14 
81 

63 
40 

3i 



1,636 



Note. — The classifications 1st, 2d, 3d, and Academies refer to the groups that Kansas 
University has divided the accredited schools of the State into for purposes of adminis- 
tration. Schools in the first class are fully accredited, and the second class and third 
class represent lower degrees of efficiency, and therefore they are not fully accredited. 
The academies are schools generally attached to the State colleges as preparatory de- 
partments. 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 



143 



TABLE II 

High School Teachers with and without Degrees 



With Degree 


Without 
Degree 






A. B. 


Other 


Totals 


Without 


Totals 


ISt 


615 

114 

21 

Si 


192 

21 

5 
20 


807 

135 
26 

71 


391 

131 

44 

31 


1,198 

266 

70 

102 


2d 


3d 


Academies 


Totals 


801 


238 


1,039 


597 


1,636 





TABLE III 

Training of Superintendents of These Same Schools 





Totals 


Degrees 


A. B. 


Not 
A. B. 


No 
Degree 


Degrees From 


K. U. 


K. S. N. 


I 

II 

Ill 

Totals. 


139 

77 
22 


99 
39 
10 


73 
31 

7 


26 
8 
3 


40 
38 
12 


26 
6 
3 


11 

7 



238 


148 


in 


37 


90 


35 


18 



144 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



TABLE IV 

Teachers with Degrees from K. U., K. S. A. C, and K. S. N. 
(State-Supported Teacher-Training Schools) 





K.U. 


K. S. A. C. 


K. S. N. 


I 


314* 
3i f 

10 § 


67 II 
4 

2 


25 
7 




II 


Ill 


Academies .' 


Totals 


358 


73 


32 





* Includes 38 A. M. 
t Includes 3 A. M. 



J Includes 1 A. M. 
§ Includes 4 A. M. 



Includes 1 M. S. 



TABLE V 

Statistics of Summer School Attendance of These High School 

Teachers 





1st 


2d 


3d 


Acade- 
mies 


Totals 


K. U 


192 

27 

212 

4 

37 

5 

280 

441 


34 

4 

76 

1 
5 

38 
108 


6 
O 

19 
O 

I 

18 
26 


IO 

I 
I 
O 
O 

54 
36 


242 

32 

308 

5 

43 

5 

390 

611 


K. S. A. C 

K.S.N 


K. U. and K. S. A. C 

K. U. and K. S. N 

K. S. A. C. and K.S.N... 
Other schools 


No summer schools 

Totals 


1,198 


266 


70 


102 


1,636 




SUMMARY 


Teachers attending 

Teachers not attending . . . 

Totals 


757 
441 


158 
108 


44 
26 


66 
36 


1,025 
611 


1,198 


266 


70 


102 


1,636 





AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 



145 



TABLE VI 
Migrations of These High School Teachers 



i year 

2 years 

3 years .... 

4 years 

5 years 

6 years or more 

Totals 



499 

222 

I50 
86 
56 

185 



1,198 



2d 



132 
67 
30 

IS 
10 

12 



266 



3d 



44 

14 

3 

5 

o 

4 



7o 



Acade- 
mies 



34 
21 
II 
IO 

4 
22 

102 



Totals 



709 
324 
194 
116 
70 
223 



1,636 



TABLE VII 



Departmental Work and Correlation of Teaching and Prepara- 
tion of These High School Teachers in Ten Cities of the 
First Class in the State 



Number departmental teachers 149. Per cent of total . . 65 

Number not departmental teachers.. . 81. Per cent of total. . 35 
Number teaching what prepared to 

teach 182. Per cent of total . . 79 

Number teaching subjects they did not 

prepare for 48. Per cent of total . . 21 



146 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



TABLE VIII 

Departmental Work of These High Schools in the Twenty 
Kansas Towns of "A" File 





Departmental 


Not 
Departmental 


Totals 


I 


26 
O 
O 


74 
16 

2 


IOO 

16 

2 


II 


Ill 


Totals i 


26 


02 


Il8 





Per cent departmental, 22. Per cent not departmental, 78. 



TABLE IX 



Correlation of Subjects Taught with the High School Teachers' 
Specific Preparation for Teaching, in Twenty Towns of "A" 
File 





Correlation 


No. 
Correlation 


Totals 


I 


48 
I 

I 


52 
IS 

I 


IOO 

16 
2 


II 


Ill 


Totals 


50 


68 


118 





Per cent of teachers who are teaching what they prepared to teach, 42. 
Per cent of teachers who are not teaching what they prepared to 
teach, 58. 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 



147 



TABLE X 

Number of These High School Teachers and Number of Dif- 
ferent Groupings of Subjects in Twenty Towns of "A" File 





No. Teachers 


No. Different 
Groupings 


I 


IOO 

16 

2 


66 
16 

2 


II 


Ill 





TABLE XI 

A List of Some of the "Unscientific" or Haphazard Combinations 
Found in Twenty Towns of the "A" File 

/. First Class 

i. Chemistry, Physics, Botany, Physiography, Physiology. 

2. Mathematics, Physics, Commercial Law, Agriculture. 

3. History, Algebra, Agriculture, Chemistry. 

4. Agriculture, Physics, Geometry, Psychology, Methods, Supervision. 

5. Latin, Commercial Law, Manual Training. 

6. Domestic Science, Domestic Art, Normal Training, Physiology, 

Botany. 

7. Algebra, Arithmetic, Geometry, Physics, History. 

8. Latin, Domestic Science, Physiology, Arithmetic. 

9. Mathematics, Normal Training, Physics, Commercial Course. 

10. Business Subjects, English History, Physical Geography, Commer- 
cial Geography. 



i7. Second Class 

1. Physics, General Science, German, English, Geometry. 

2. Botany, Latin, German, Geometry. 

3. English, Algebra, History, Commercial Arithmetic, Commercial 

Geography. 



148 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



CHART A 

Shows Sources of Preparation of High School Teachers of 

Kansas 

1 981 University or College 

II 258 University or College and Normal 

1,239 

III 326 Normal 

IV 40 High School 

V 31 Special 

Total 1,636 



CHART B 



Shows Training of Teachers on Same Plan as Chart "A," but 
Gives Details for Each Type of Accredited School Rather 
than Total for All Four Classes 





1st 


2d 


3d 


Acade- 
mies 


Totals 


University or College 

University or College and 
Normal 


746 

189 

214 

24 

25 


130 

39 
92 

4* 
1* 


34 
II 

18 

6* 
1* 


71 

19 

2* 

6* 
4* 


981 

258 

326 

40 

31 


Normal 


High School 


Special 


Totals 


1,198 


266 


70 


182 


1,636 





' Not shown on chart. 



Sources ofPreparation ofTotalNumberof 
High Schoolteachers of Kansas Reporting 



Univ. or College 
Univ. or College 

&NORMAL 

Normal 



i High School 

i Special 

scale ■=ioo 



Teachers by Schools 

inn !!■■■■ First Class 



■D Second - 

m Third • 

m Academies 

■ University or College 

a •• ■» •• & Normal 

o Normal 

o High School 

m Special 

scale m s too 

149 



150 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



CHART C 

This Chart Shows Total Number of Teachers With Degrees and 
Total Number Without 





With 


Without 


Totals 


I 


807 

135 
26 
71 


391 

131 

44 

31 


1,198 

266 

70 

102 


II 


Ill 


Academies 


Totals . 


i,039 


597 


1,636 





CHART D 



Shows Total Number of Superintendents With and Without 

Degrees 





With 


Without 


Totals 


I 


99 
39 
10 


40 
38 
12 


139 

77 
22 


II 


Ill 


Totals 


148 


90 


238 





Degrees 

Teachers With 

Teachers Without 



scale m 8 100 



Training of Superintendents 

3 Total 



First Class 
Second « 
Third 



■ With Oegrees 
q Without 

SCALE ■ : )g 

151 



152 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



CHART E 

Shows Number of Teachers With Degrees from K. U. 
K. S. A. C, and K. S. N. 





K. U. 


K. S. A. C. 


K. S. N. 


I 


3i4 

3i 

3 

10 


67 
4 

2 


25 
7 




II 

Ill 


Academies 


Totals 


358 


73 


32 





CHART F 



Shows Comparison Between Number of Teachers Who Received 
Training in K. U. and in K. S. N. Teachers Who Have Been 
at Both a Normal School and College Not Included in List 





I 


II 


III 


Acade- 
mies 


Totals 


K. U 


293 
172 


39 
76 


7 
i5 


7 
O 


346 
263 


K. S. N 



Teachers With Degrees From 
K.U.. K.S.A.C.AND K.S.N. 
K U 

K.S.A.C. 

K8H. 



SCALE m 2 SO 

Teachers From K.U.and K.S.N. 

3 Total All Schools 

First Class 
Second ■■ 

ThlRD 

i Academies 

■ K.U. 
□ K.S.N. 

SCALE ■ :SO 

153 



154 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



CHART G 

Shows the Summaries for Summer School Statistics. For De- 
tails See Table V 





Attending 


Not 
Attending 


I 


757 

158 

44 

66 


441 

108 

26 

36 


II 


Ill 


Academies 


Totals 


1,025 


6ll 



CHART H 



Shows Length of Time Teachers Have Been in Present Positions. 
Only Totals are Given Here. For Details See Table VI 



1 year 709 

2 years 324 

3 years 194 

4 years 116 

5 years 70 

6 years 223 

1,636 



Summer Schools 
mhhb Total Enrolled In 
" Not 



mmm 1 Teachers Attending 

Not 
wm 2 Teachers Attending 

■ Not 

■ 3TEACHERS Attending 

Not 

■ ATeachers Attending 

■ Not 

scale ■ 8 100 



Teachers In Present Position 

■■■■■ One Year 

« IWo Years 

■■ T^ree Years 

■ Four Years 

p FIve Years 

mm Six Years 



SCALE m s 100 

155 



156 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



CHART I 

Shows Migration of Teachers 





I 


II 


III 


Acade- 
mies 


Totals 


Teachers Reappointed 

Teachers in New Positions 


699 
499 


134 
132 


26 
44 


68 
34 


927 
709 


1,198 


266 


70 


102 


1,636 



CHART J 

Shows to What Extent High School Teachers in Ten Cities of 
the First Class May be Classified as Departmental Teachers 



Departmental teachers 149 

Not departmental teachers 81 

Per cent departmental teachers 65 

Per cent not departmental teachers 35 



First Class 
m ^ Second •• 

D Third • 

m Academies 

m Teachers Reappointed 
o •• In New Positions 

scale - =100 



Teachers In 10 Cities First Class 

■■Mmmhhhb DEPARTMENTAL 

Not 

Departmental 65 Per Cent 
Not 35 - " 

SCALE m a IB 

157 



J 







X 

w 

3 
co 





Is 


8 
8 


8 
J 


s 

1 

1 


t 


s 

1 

■ 


B 


£ 

1 

B 


B 




158 




I- 
m 

x 




| S 8 8 



2 5 a « 



g 



8 * 



$ 


t 


8 


i 


i 


ft 


a 


B 







159 



160 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

In the foregoing tables and charts there are many 
points that have particular interest for those who are 
working to bring about the conditions in our high schools 
that will make for greater efficiency and better business 
administration. Some of these may be outlined very 
briefly. 

Training of Teachers. — The first and most striking 
point is that, in regard to the training of the teachers, 
professionally and otherwise, for their work as educa- 
tors, the Kansas teaching corps represents nearly every 
type of training that one could find. While table I sets 
forth these types under eighteen main headings, many 
times that number would be necessary if one attempted 
an adequate representation of the situation. Many of 
the teachers have failed to make any preparation for the 
serious work of teaching. Many more have prepared 
for other professions and vocations and have drifted into 
teaching possibly after failing to make a success in their 
chosen field of work. 

Teachers and Superintendents with Degrees. — The 
table showing the number of superintendents with de- 
grees and those without indicates very clearly the lack 
of any adequate standard of qualifications for the work 
of superintending a school system. Similarly, the table 
in which the situation for teachers, principals, and super- 
intendents combined is set forth, makes it evident that 
our high schools are, as a rule, below the standard in the 
preparation of their teachers. It serves to explain also 
some of the reasons for the lower efficiency of Kansas as 
compared with some other States. 

Summer Schools. — The table on summer schools gives 
very complete statistics, but does not indicate exactly 
to what extent teachers have attended summer sessions 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 161 

to gain, by further study, a better professional equip- 
ment and added efficiency. 

Migrations of Teachers. — It has always been known 
to thoughtful schoolmen that teachers, principals, and 
superintendents migrate very frequently from town to 
town. This is largely due to the following two reasons: 
first, a move for a higher salary; second, the failure to 
succeed in a given place. Some changes are necessary 
and desirable, no doubt, but the Kansas high schools are 
lowering their efficiency and are costing more, financially 
and otherwise (due to a larger number of failures, etc.) , 
because of this constant introduction of new teachers. 
Cases are not infrequent where the whole staff is changed 
every year. 

Departmental Teaching. — Another interesting fact is 
that in regard to the relative proportion of the high school 
teachers who may be classified as departmental teachers, 
as compared with those whose work is found in more 
than one department. In the ten cities of the first class 
(political classification), where the most favorable con- 
ditions for school work are found, only 65 per cent are 
departmental teachers. This per cent is very largely 
increased, too, by the presence in these schools of teach- 
ers of domestic science and art, manual training, com- 
mercial subjects, music, and physical training. The 
situation in the twenty towns of the "A" file is very 
different, as there the departmental teachers were very 
few — only 22 per cent. 

Correlation of Preparation and Teaching. — In respect 
to the correlation between the subjects the teachers are 
teaching and the subjects they prepared to teach, it 
was found that 79 per cent of the teachers in the ten 
cities of the first class were actually teaching the branches 



162 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

they prepared to teach. In the twenty cities in the "A" 
file results were somewhat different as less than half the 
teachers had prepared to teach the subjects they were 
teaching at the time of the survey. The percentage in 
this case was 42. 

Assignment of Teachers. — Probably the most interest- 
ing charts for school administrators are Charts K and L, 
because they represent a very serious situation which is 
so important that it may be profitably discussed here. 
The fact that in such fundamental studies as mathe- 
matics, history, Latin, and English there was such a 
large percentage of teachers unprepared for the work, 
and the further fact that there were available in the State 
at the same time an equal number of teachers, or nearly 
so, who were prepared to teach these subjects and anx- 
ious to do so, show that there are no principles of bus- 
iness administration employed in assigning subjects to 
teachers. This indicates also that principals, superin- 
tendents, and school boards seek teachers to fill vacancies 
rather than teachers for specific subjects. A part of the 
fault lies, no doubt, at the door of the principal for the 
wrong assignment of teachers, but the main difficulty 
arises from the fact that the superintendents have not 
assumed the responsibility of getting competent teachers 
for each position. A part of the explanation may be 
found in the political situation, making room for home 
talent even when there is no opening in the department 
in which the applicant is prepared to work. It is too 
often the case that a school board acts in such mat- 
ters with reference to its personal attitude toward the 
teacher as a person rather than chiefly in the interests of 
the students who are to be served. The charts show clearly 
that the problems to be solved are, first, to reduce the 
size of the group of teachers who are teaching with no 



AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 163 

specific preparation for the work, and, second, to reduce 
the size of the group of those prepared to teach a given 
subject, yet who are teaching other subjects, by grad- 
ually placing these teachers in the departments in which 
they are best qualified to work. The whole situation 
calls for a thoroughgoing, co-operative effort to adjust 
teaching assets to demands. It is scientific management 
of the teaching resources of a State that is here de- 
manded. The teacher problem is, in a fundamental 
sense, the educational problem. 

Different Combinations of Subjects. — Table II indi- 
cates as well as anything possibly could the utter lack of 
standards or principles for high school procedure. There 
seems to be no logic nor system in any of the schools in 
this respect. In most cases it is clearly an arbitrary as- 
signment and shows the entire absence of efficient organi- 
zation — a broad and sound policy of administration. 

Conclusion. — The purpose throughout this chapter has 
been to present some of the main features of American 
school administration as they now appear, calling atten- 
tion to the newer progressive developments in certain 
cities, and to suggest briefly some other lines of investi- 
gation looking toward the improvement and ultimate 
establishment of standards, or norms, for our high school 
work. Every intelligent citizen and broad-minded man 
needs to know the actual conditions as they exist to-day, 
both in his city and in his State as a whole. It would be 
difficult to find more important issues than the present 
insistent ones arising out of our municipal and school 
affairs. It will be only through the work of capable busi- 
ness managers that we shall begin to approach the norms 
set by private enterprise and demanded in the interests 
of our one and one quarter million high school boys and 
girls. 



CHAPTER V 

THE RELATION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL TO THE 
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

By Homer W. Josselyn, A.M. 

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION, UNIVERSITY 
OF KANSAS 

Beginnings of Elementary Education. — The first ele- 
mentary schools to be organized in America were those 
established in Massachusetts in the early colonial 
days. Compulsory education was approved on religious 
grounds. The early school laws of the colony enacted in 
1642 and 1647 indicate clearly that the colonists were 
firmly committed to the policy of establishing and main- 
taining a system of public education. The enthusiasm 
for schools sprung from the religious belief of the colonists 
and their familiarity with the English grammar-schools 
established after the Protestant Reformation. It is not 
strange, therefore, that in colonial times the church and 
schoolhouse stood together nor that the minister at times 
was schoolmaster also. 

Even at this early period two distinct types of schools 
were provided for by legal enactment, the Latin or gram- 
mar schools and the dame or vernacular schools. The 
latter type was the forerunner of the elementary school 
of to-day though its curriculum bears little resemblance 
to that of the present time. The function of these 
pioneer vernacular schools was primarily that of teaching 
reading. One of the beliefs of the Calvinists was that 

164 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 165 

in matters of religion all are equally concerned, and as 
the scriptures were to be regarded as the rule of life 
each individual should be able to read them for himself. 
Laws were passed making it obligatory on parents or 
guardians to see that all children under their control 
knew how to read. Fines were levied for failure to com- 
ply with this requirement. In addition to the elements 
of reading, the children were taught writing, the cate- 
chism, the civil laws of the commonwealth, and simple 
number relations. This curriculum was narrow, the 
school and its equipment poor, and the teachers insuffi- 
ciently trained. From these early beginnings until the 
first part of the nineteenth century there was little 
change in the type of education provided. Elementary 
education was in the handicraft stage, the training given 
being mainly intellectual and of a semi-religious char- 
acter. 

The Latin or grammar schools were for the wealthier 
class. The instruction here was of a more advanced 
type than that offered in the vernacular schools and pre- 
pared the students to enter Harvard. Another type of 
school giving secondary instruction, the academy, de- 
veloped later, and its growth in influence and importance 
is coincident with the decline in the grammar-schools 
and the development of the district schools. This new 
institution was firmly established by 182 1, the date of 
the erection of the English classical high school of Bos- 
ton. As the founding of this school inaugurated the 
high school movement it marks an era in our educational 
history. Secondary education before this was classical 
and similar in type to that found in England. The citi- 
zens of Boston were the first to recognize the need for 
secondary training for all — training for those who were 



166 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

going into business or public life as well as for those who 
were going on to the universities for further study for 
the professions. The movement for the establishment of 
public high schools grew constantly, but up to 1850 or 
possibly later the academies maintained their ascen- 
dancy. Among the valuable contributions made by the 
academies to the cause of public secondary education 
may be mentioned: (1) the furthering of the idea that 
educational training should be given students for life and 
college, too; (2) gathering together and improving the 
subject-matter suitable for the secondary field; (3) in- 
creasing the demand generally for more education than 
that given in the elementary schools. 

To summarize briefly, education in colonial days con- 
sisted in acquiring a certain command over and facility 
in the use of linguistic and symbolic things. In the ele- 
mentary schools reading, writing, spelling of the English 
language, together with simple number work, were all 
taught in a purely mechanical and formal manner. In 
the grammar-schools also, though the reading, writing, 
and spelling were of Latin, with algebra and geometry 
in place of arithmetic, the emphasis was on the formal 
and symbolic. The education offered appealed only to 
the student with the academic turn of mind. For the 
child who could work successfully only with concrete 
things and who would have enjoyed the content subjects 
of to-day there was no provision. Academic, bookish 
standards prevailed. The colonial schoolmaster was so 
restricted in his educational view-point that he often 
even insisted that those who could not conform to the 
school's methods and scheme of organization should 
leave. He himself was adept at dealing with symbols, 
and that was all he wished to teach. 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 167 

Changing Conditions Affecting Elementary Educa- 
tion. — In every domain of American affairs the nine- 
teenth century was a century of remarkable changes, 
which were so rapid that the ancient traditions, made to 
solve and serve the old and now outgrown conditions, 
did not suffice. The school, protected though it was 
within its academic walls, felt the changes keenly, and 
during this century there was particularly a marked 
development in the field and scope of elementary edu- 
cation. To the very narrow curriculum of colonial days 
one subject after another was added until it may truth- 
fully be said that the failure of the elementary school to 
satisfy the demands of many of its critics to-day is 
largely due to its overcrowded curriculum. 

This development accompanied the even greater 
changes that were taking place in the industrial, eco- 
nomic, commercial, agricultural, and political world. 
During this period social ideals were changed and de- 
veloped. Manners, customs, and standards of living 
were all in a state of flux. Great as was the advance in 
educational thought and practice, it was far overshadowed 
by the material progress made in all parts of the coun- 
try. The philosophy of education held by schoolmen, 
and the science of education, imperfect as it was, suffered 
important and fundamental modifications. The em- 
phasis was gradually shifted from education for intel- 
lectual culture and discipline to the broader and saner 
view of education for social efficiency. 

During this period of transition the charge was often 
made that the schools were mainly for the minority, 
designed, whether consciously or not, in the interests 
of those who demanded and who could make use of 
academic training. The feeling was growing, also, that 



168 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the inherited curriculum was one sided and unbalanced. 
It is true that in the stress of our rapidly changing social 
and industrial conditions our schools have not risen as 
they should to their responsibility of furnishing oppor- 
tunities for the training of individual pupils for social 
efficiency. Particularly is this true of the schools in our 
larger towns and cities. After a certain amount of work 
is mastered by many pupils in the early grades there is 
often difficulty in retaining them in school. The boys, 
particularly, seem to feel that the school is no longer able 
to function in their lives, and so they drop out of school 
and we find many of them clogging the ranks of the un- 
skilled. A large number of these boys and girls do not 
work on leaving school. They do not find themselves able 
to become adjusted to the life of the community. This is 
not to be wondered at, for there is at the present time a 
wider gap between our educational system and the local 
life in our cities than there is between the elementary 
schools and the high school, though the latter is wide 
enough. Another fact to be noted here, also, is our fail- 
ure to bring about universal education. We never shall 
so long as we maintain our schools as they are to-day and 
continue to neglect the needs of the pupils who desire 
vocational work. Even in the lower grades the curricu- 
lum may be easily so modified as to include construction 
work. When the three R's constituted the curriculum 
there was time enough to ramify them indefinitely. 
The problem to-day in the elementary grades is not ex- 
pansion of subject-matter nor enrichment of curriculum 
by addition of cultural subjects, but rather one of 
elimination of unessentials. It is necessary now as 
never before to find the essentials in the subjects for 
the elementary school period, and these should be so 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 169 

thoroughly taught that they become a part of the child 
himself. 

Curriculum Difficulties. — The enrichment which has 
been going on for some years has become so extensive 
and far-reaching that the teachers in some elementary 
schools are overwhelmed with the multitude of aims. 
The Committee of Ten recommended so many subjects 
for the elementary schools that they felt compelled to 
add: 

If any one feels dismayed at the number and variety of the 
subjects to be opened to the children of tender age let him ob- 
serve that while these nine conferences desire each their own 
subject to be brought into the courses of the elementary schools 
they all agree that these different subjects should be correlated 
and associated one with another by the programme and by the 
actual teaching. 

The saving of time and energy was to be accomplished 
by better methods and by seeking educational aims look- 
ing toward the more efficient teaching of subject-matter. 
Economy in the selection, adaptation, and presentation 
of subject-matter was hoped for. The relative worth of 
things was to be established. In the years that have 
passed since this report there has been little of permanent 
value accomplished in these particulars. There is a 
marked tendency still to sacrifice quality to quantity. 

In spite of the fact that the history of the changes 
from the old type of school to the modern, publicly sup- 
ported school, free for all, with its free text-books and 
with an enlarged and enriched curriculum, is the history 
of the organized fight of the radical, humanitarian, ar- 
tisan, and poorer classes for an education for all the 
children of the country, our schools have always lagged 
behind in the work of modifying their curriculums to 



170 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

meet new social conditions. So complex and so shifting 
are the conditions of modern life that it is difficult to 
prepare for them. Still it is not asking too much that 
the work in the elementary schools be presented from 
the standpoint of its use and its bearing on vocations as 
well as from the standpoint of its being preparation for 
further education of a cultural sort. Comparatively 
few of our pupils do take advantage of the high school 
training offered by the community. The majority of the 
pupils do not finish the seventh grade in our elementary 
schools. Therefore that elementary education which 
does not make it possible for every boy and girl to acquire 
a training directly helpful in the great struggle for a 
living is not meeting the responsibilities placed upon 
it. Children differ so radically 1 in capacities, desires, 
interests, and needs that what is an excellent oppor- 
tunity for one is no opportunity at all for another. 
Equal opportunity for all must cease to mean the same 
curriculum for all. The test of our educational system 
must come to mean the excellence of the training pro- 
vided for each individual child with reference to what he 
is best qualified to do. Our schools to-day are meeting 
the needs of the boys and girls who wish to continue 
their studies in high school and college, but they are 
taking little account of the pupils who cannot prepare for 
or do not wish a higher education. 

Poor Articulation. — One of the functions of the ele- 
mentary school must always be to prepare a fraction of 
its pupils to engage most efficiently in the work of the 
secondary schools. The elementary school must antic- 
ipate the high school and put into its curriculum some 
studies that will function in the later period and change 
its methods for those more nearly allied to high school 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 171 

procedure. The criticism is frequently made that the 
transition from the grades to the high school is too 
abrupt; that there is a big gap between the two types 
of schools. Judging from the statistics of school enrol- 
ment and elimination, this is true. Our elementary 
schools have not, in administering their curriculums 
looked sufficiently either to the school beyond or to 
life independent of the high school. The curriculums of 
the lower and higher grades must be changed in whatever 
way is necessary to meet the conditions brought about 
by our industrial, economic, social, and educational de- 
velopment. This may mean changes in the subject- 
matter, the methods, the aims, the ideals, and the organi- 
zation of both the lower and secondary schools. 

New Demands Upon the Upper Grammar Grades. — 
The increased interest of the public in educational affairs 
has manifested itself in a growing demand throughout 
the country that the schools shall be more closely related 
to the future work of the children. There is an ever- 
growing sentiment that along with the cultural academic 
studies should go training preparatory to the work the 
pupils are going to do after they leave the public schools. 
Opportunities for manual and trade instruction for those 
who cannot successfully do or do not care for the aca- 
demic work are now demanded as the right of that large 
class of pupils who yearly leave school unequipped 
educationally. Sociological writers and public-spirited 
citizens have pointed out that the ranks of unskilled 
and low-grade laborers are overcrowded, and that, 
because the supply of skilled laborers from Europe 
has decreased very materially, industry is suffering from 
a lack of skilled workmen. As the old apprenticeship 
system has gone never to return, the question is now 



172 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

raised as to the possibility of accomplishing the same 
or better results through a system of education which 
shall meet the needs of the workers and of the manu- 
facturers. Special State commissions have been ap- 
pointed in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massa- 
chusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and Wisconsin to study 
the situation and ascertain what can and shall be done 
at public expense. 

Organization of Public Education in European Coun- 
tries. — As contrasted with the American scheme of school 
organization, secondary education begins generally in 
Europe at the age of eleven or twelve. To examine in 
detail the educational systems of Germany, France, En- 
gland, Sweden, Austria, Japan, and Canada, and contrast 
them with that of the United States, is no easy task, 
for it involves the study of very complicated administra- 
tive and educational problems. It is necessary, there- 
fore, merely to indicate roughly the external organiza- 
tion of the elementary and secondary types of school and 
to show the lack of articulation between the two. In 
this particular there is an important difference between 
the European countries and the United States. The 
tendency of the German nation to preserve the caste 
system has, looked at from our American point of view, 
gone beyond the bounds of necessity. From the German 
angle very possibly our American disregard for class dif- 
ferences and needs in education creates a more difficult 
situation with more far-reaching evil effects. There are. 
many dangers to be found in our American organization 
due to the too great freedom allowed individual students 
in the election or non-election of high school studies, 
while in Germany the student suffers from a system that 
is too rigid and too paternalistic. 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 173 

The German school system and German educational 
aims and ideals cannot be studied apart from the political, 
social, and industrial history and present-day conditions 
of the country. Germany is said to have the finest sys- 
tem of elementary schools in the world, nine tenths of 
the children of school age being enrolled in the Volks- 
schulen. Elementary education extends, as in the United 
States, over a period of eight years. Secondary educa- 
tion, however, is not built on top of this elementary 
training as in the United States. This secondary type of 
school enrolls children at the age of nine or ten and offers 
them a continuous curriculum of nine years. Pupils 
who expect to have secondary training in Germany usu- 
ally attend the Forschulen and go from this to the 
Hohere Schulen (high schools). The great difference, 
therefore, between the German and American systems is 
in Germany's lack of articulation between the elementary 
and secondary instruction and in the organization of the 
secondary school itself. Because of the longer period in 
the secondary school, and better teachers, the average 
intellectual ability (or at least attainment) of the German 
pupil is greater at eighteen when he enters the German 
University than that of our American student who at the 
same age enters college. The very facts that secondary 
training begins so early and that there is a sharp differ- 
entiation between the schools are of decided advantage to 
the German teacher. In America children of all classes, 
from widely different environments and with greater vari- 
ations in mental ability, are found in the same school- 
room. The compulsory school law compels their atten- 
dance whether they will or no. Because, therefore, of the 
unsifted nature of the class the teacher may not teach 
consciously for that little group who may be planning 



174 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

later on to enter the high school. The differentiated 
treatment here called for constitutes the problem of 
this chapter. While it is not expected nor intended 
that the pupils of the Volksschulen shall receive any 
secondary education, Germany has gone far ahead of 
any other nation in establishing institutions for provid- 
ing vocational education for these pupils after they have 
completed the elementary course and are engaged in 
their life-work. 

In France, as in Germany, it is not intended that the 
elementary schools merely prepare pupils for secondary 
training. The elementary course runs from four or six 
to nine years. Secondary education is provided by the 
lycee and the college. Pupils here receive seven years 
of work and, as they enter at nine years, complete work 
by sixteen. France, like Germany, has a good system of 
vocational education for the workers after they leave the 
elementary schools. 

In England secondary education is maintained exten- 
sively by independent endowed schools, and these 
schools do not articulate with the public elementary 
schools. The age for entering the secondary schools 
varies from eleven to fourteen, and they graduate at 
about the same age as in America, eighteen or nineteen. 
There are also in England higher elementary schools 
which continue the work of the elementary schools, 
but these are not comparable to secondary schools and 
they enroll comparatively few students. England is not 
as progressive as France and Germany in providing 
vocational education, though considerable instruction of 
this type is given in all parts of Great Britain. 

Elementary education in Austria consists of eight 
years, divided into two parts, a five-year course in 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 175 

Volksschulen and three years in the Burgherschulen. 
There is no articulation between these schools and those 
of secondary grade, and the system is similar in many 
respects to the German plan of organization. 

In Sweden elementary education is provided in the 
Folkskolor, and the course varies from six to seven or 
even eight years. Here, again, there is a lack of articula- 
tion between the schools, the secondary schools running 
parallel to the elementary schools, with the pupils enter- 
ing the former at the age of nine or ten years. 

In the case of Japan, elementary education consists 
usually of six years, followed by middle schools of secon- 
dary grade with a five-year course, and the higher schools 
follow these with a three-year course and prepare for the 
university. 

Chart I illustrates these conditions graphically and 
shows that the United States, Canada, and Japan are the 
only countries where secondary education is built on top 
of elementary training. In all other cases the schools run 
parallel for a number of years, and there is no attempt 
to articulate the work. There is also no provision for a 
pupil to pass from one to the other, as that procedure is 
not deemed desirable because of the character of the 
social organizations in these countries. 

Pedagogical Basis for Differentiating Elementary and 
Secondary Education. — Why is it that elementary edu- 
cation is prolonged in this country and that our secon- 
dary-school work is postponed three or four years later 
than in the European countries here discussed? The 
problem to be solved is whether there is any pedagogical 
age at which secondary education should begin. 

It seems to be sound reasoning to hold that higher or 
secondary education should begin for the child as soon 



176 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



as he has the tools with which he may profitably gain this 
higher training. Looked at in this way, the main func- 
tion of the elementary school is to give the child the 
training necessary for participation in higher education 

RELATION OF ELEMENTARY TO 

SECONDARY EDUCATION 





U. S. CANAD A GER MANY FRANCE ENG LAND AUSTRIA SWEDEN JAPAN 
EH ELEMENTARY L ! SECONDARY 

Chart I 

as early as possible, say by the time he is eleven or twelve 
years of age. What are these tools with which the pupil 
should be equipped at this age? 
(i) Ability to read. 

(2) Ability to express in words thoughts gained from 
reading. 

(3) Ability to express in writing thoughts gained from 
reading and conversation. 

(4) Ability to do simple number work. 

(5) More or less information in geography and in 
nature study. 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 177 



(6) A certain knowledge and appreciation of myths 
and child literature. 

(7) Some ability to do simple construction and 
manual- training work. 

All this can and should be accomplished in the educa- 
tion of the average child on completion of the sixth 
grade. 

Following is a suggested time schedule for each sub- 
ject and grade in the elementary school: 



Subject 


Grade 


B 1 


A I 


II 


B III 


A III 


IV 


V 


VI 


Language and 
Composition. . 

Reading and 
Phonics 

Spelling 

Arithmetic 

Oral Number 
Drill 

Geography 

History 

Nature Study . . . 

Hygiene 

Music 

Drawing 

Writing 

Opening Ex 

PhysicalTraining 

Manual Training 

Miscellaneous . . . 

Recess 

Total 


175 
600 

40 
40 
20 
60 
60 
75 
40 
50 
60 
130 
150 

1,500 


175 

600 
50 

40 
40 
20 
60 
60 
75 
40 
50 
60 
80 
150 


175 

45o 
125 
100 

25 

40 
40 
20 
60 
60 
75 
40 
5o 
60 
30 
150 


175 

300 
125 
200 

25 
75 
40 
40 
20 
60 
60 
75 
40 
5o 
60 
5 
150 


175 

300 
125 
200 

25 
100 
30 
30 
20 
60 
60 
75 
40 
5o 
60 

150 


225 

175 
175 
200 

25 
200 
150 

20 
60 
60 
75 
40 
5o 
120 

75 


225 

150 
150 
250 

225 
150 

20 
60 
60 
75 
40 
5o 
120 

75 


225 

150 
150 
250 

225 
150 

20 
60 
60 
75 
40 
5o 
120 

75 


1,500 


1,500 


1,500 


1,500 


1,650 


1,650 


1,650* 



: Minutes per week. 



One of the important functions of the elementary 
schools is to increase the happiness and civic usefulness 
of the individual pupil. Because, however, the curricu- 



178 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

lum as it stands to-day has the cultural side better cared 
for than the vocational, industrial, or practical, it is neces- 
sary to examine carefully the subject-matter presented 
and the methods used to ascertain whether the ends at- 
tained by the elementary school graduate justify the 
means and time used in his preparation. If the broader 
view-point of the consideration of the needs of the age 
were taken as the ends in view, and if the subjects taught 
were presented consciously as a means toward these ends, 
it is safe to assume that there would be a most radical 
readjustment in elementary school organization and 
that the education given would do more for a pupil than 
furnish him the necessary tools for acquiring further 
knowledge of an academic sort. 

The situation in some cities indicates clearly that the 
elementary school has made an ambitious attempt to 
spread out into the field of the secondary school. The 
relation between the elementary and the secondary school 
should be an intimate one. Above all things the sec- 
ondary schools require a well-graded system of ele- 
mentary schools that will supply them with a body of 
pupils whose previous training has been more or less uni- 
form and of a standard grade. The very fact that a 
clear differentiation between the functions of the two 
types of schools in our social organization is needed 
to-day is an indication that the relationship of one to 
the other is not clearly and satisfactorily defined. For 
some years the statement has been made and remade that 
there is a gap between the two schools which must be 
bridged. All attempts to accomplish this, however, have 
only tended to accentuate the emphasis upon the aca- 
demic aspects of the educational process. Much remains 
to be done before these different aims may be harmonized. 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 179 

Necessity for Curriculum Reorganization. — The serious 
purpose of public education should be, first, to train pupils 
in the elementary and secondary schools for self-support 
and for active and useful participation in the industrial, po- 
litical, and intellectual life of society. One of the great- 
est failures growing out of our present organization is that 
our curriculums have been based on the assumptions that 
the children are normal, that all have the same powers 
and talents, and that it only requires training to bring 
them out. Only recently has attention been given to 
the individual aptitudes, interests, capacities, and needs 
of school children. The nature of our school population 
and present conditions in American life make necessary 
a reorganization of the American school system and our 
schoolroom procedure. At present we are trying in these 
respects to adjust our schools to individual children. 
The waste in school work in the past was due to just this 
maladjustment between the content of the curriculum 
and the needs of the pupils. The community has at last 
set educators to work to examine most critically the whole 
scheme of public education. The problem of reorganiza- 
tion includes, then, very distinctly, vocational education. 
The rights of the individual and the welfare of society 
require practical training leading toward useful occupa- 
tions for that large class of youths whose period of edu- 
cation is limited. Many children, particularly boys, 
drop behind their mates because book-work comes hard 
for them. In many cases these same boys are better 
fitted for manual-training work than the boys of higher 
standing in the traditional subjects. The tools of edu- 
cation could have been acquired by them at the age 
of twelve and high school methods employed. Many 
types of mental training are better adapted to the earlier 



180 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

years. Beginning high school subjects, with depart- 
mental teaching of all subjects, and using high school 
methods at twelve, will, it is expected, meet the needs of 
pupils like those described above, who are restless and 
seek larger and more interesting life not possible in the 
elementary school. 

For these and other reasons it is growing more and 
more apparent that the elementary period as now organ- 
ized must be modified to meet present-day conditions. 
The elementary period as such should end at twelve 
years or the sixth grade. Many educators are engaged 
in studying or experimenting upon some phase of re- 
organization. If the whole scheme of primary education 
is entirely reorganized because of this agitation and seri- 
ous reflective thought, an impetus hitherto unknown 
will be given to popular education. 

The plans for the organization of public education, as 
shown in the color chart, open up the whole question of the 
function of public education and the relation of one type 
of school to another and to the community. The at- 
tempt has been made to show graphically the condition 
as it now exists in the great majority of American cities 
and towns, and by other graphs to suggest plans for the 
reorganization of the public schools to meet the conditions 
and needs already noted. The seventh, eighth, and 
ninth grades have been organized as a separate depart- 
ment, between the elementary and the high school. 

Work of Intermediate Department. — In this interme- 
diate department the work should be unified and the at- 
tempt made to retain all pupils at least through the 
ninth grade. There is need for something beyond the 
elementary schools, as now constituted, not only to 
bridge the gap between the elementary and secondary 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 181 

instruction but also to offer to the great mass of the peo- 
ple an opportunity for acquiring a certain intellectual 
development and some industrial training at the same 
time. As a matter of fact, the child of average ability in 
academic work is educated now at the expense of the 
State only through the lower grades. 

If the elementary period consisted of the first six 
grades the average child should, if the work is properly 
graded and taught, reach the sixth grade at twelve. To 
make this result fairly certain the subject-matter of these 
grades should be thoroughly worked over and tested as 
to its adaptability for the average age and stage of devel- 
opment of the pupils of each grade. One of the large 
problems to be solved in the establishment of this inter- 
mediate department, then, will be the organization of the 
subject-matter. There are too many subjects now in the 
seventh and eighth grades, and they are generally poorly 
taught. Doctor Henry S. Pritchett, of the Carnegie Foun- 
dation, recently stated that American education from ele- 
mentary school to college is suffering from the attempt to 
teach too many things to the same pupil at the same time. 
Much, therefore, that is now given in the upper grammar 
grades must of necessity be eliminated and much better 
work must be done in the first six grades, so that there 
may be uniformity in the training of the pupils when they 
enter the intermediate department. In the proposed in- 
termediate department each student would study fewer 
subjects, but there would be a choice of several groups of 
studies open for his careful selection. These groups of 
studies should be arranged from the standpoint of social 
needs, and in organizing the courses educational aims 
should be adapted to the community concerned. 

The curriculum, too, in all three years of the, interne- 



182 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

diate school should be built to meet the needs of the large 
majority who will not enter high school nor go on to 
college. The intermediate school should, by the careful 
and more prolonged training of the rising generation, con- 
tribute greatly to the improvement of the industrial, 
agricultural, commercial, and social life of the country. 
The constant aim of this proposed department of the 
public school should be to give the pupil the sort of in- 
struction that would be useful to him in his after-life. 
Because there is immediate need for many boys, and girls 
too, to work at the close of the compulsory school period 
(fourteen years in most States still), provision must be 
made while they are yet in school to give them some 
training of an industrial character. In the industrial 
courses the principle should be held that a boy or man 
is not perfectly trained until he has received a twofold 
training, the intellectual and cultural, and the industrial 
and practical. In industrial courses, therefore, the lib- 
eral work of the school should be related to the industrial 
and vocational work. If any who have taken those 
courses in the intermediate school which are closely 
related to life pursuits find that they are able to continue 
longer in school, they will be qualified to follow, in the 
high school proper, more advanced work in industrial 
curriculums or in the general academic curriculums. 

Different Student Groups. — Whenever possible, be- 
cause of size of school and financial opportunities, the 
work of the intermediate department should be organ- 
ized so as to care for three different groups of students: 
first, those who wish academic training for high school; 
second, those who wish general training and manual 
training, but do not desire preparation for any particular 
vocation; and third, those who desire, in addition to the 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 183 

general work offered the second group, specific training 
for some trade. In general the courses offered should 
include: (a) the languages, literature, history, civics, 
and fine arts; (b) mathematics, commercial geography; 
(c) manual training, domestic science, shop work, and 
home economics. While it may not be possible for the 
intermediate department to offer training in particular 
vocations, it should offer manual training, domestic sci- 
ence, manual-arts courses, and industrial work of such a 
broad, general nature as to have a decided practical value. 

If the aim of the public school should thus become a 
conscious endeavor to give an equal opportunity to all, 
to give as much help to the boy or girl who needs the 
practical training as to those who wish the traditional 
work, the tendency will be for the pupils to remain in 
school beyond their fourteenth birthday. Very possibly 
many will graduate from the ninth grade of the interme- 
diate school who would not have completed the elemen- 
tary course as it is now organized. It is also likely that 
in many cases a desire for an industrial career will be 
awakened, and that the. high school p'roper will receive 
pupils who have not been interested in the academic 
work. 

It is quite probable that, in the case of those children 
who after completing the industrial work in the interme- 
diate schools do enroll in the high school, the assertion 
will be made by critics of the scheme of organization here 
outlined that some, at least, will be literally forced to an 
early specialization. This criticism need not be given 
much consideration, as it is sure to come from the extreme 
conservatives, who are so narrow in their educational 
philosophy that they voice this objection whenever and 
wherever possible. When other pupils on leaving high 



184 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

school regret not having completed an industrial course 
as preparation for life, the same teachers will not feel that 
they are responsible for the early and continued special- 
ization in academic training leading toward the profes- 
sions. In this latter event the value of the cultural train- 
ing will very likely continue to be held before the pupil, 
as it is at present in nearly all the high schools of the 
country. 

There is no reason to believe, however, that the use of 
material in school that is closely related to modern life 
and social pursuits will not be as truly cultural as the 
more academic branches, or that it will not function as 
successfully in the lives of the children who would other- 
wise probably be at work in unskilled pursuits. It may 
be emphatically asserted that culture is no fixed or defi- 
nite thing. It is ever changing to fit time and place. It 
is evolutionary. To the average American, however, cul- 
ture represents the knowledge of the life of the ancients, 
and so we have many educators and laymen putting 
emphasis on notions of culture based on those of the 
Greeks. This is "not only a very narrow conception of 
culture but a very false one — false, at any rate, in so far 
as we speak of actual results in the child's intellectual 
and social life as he leaves the school on his fourteenth 
birthday. 

The need for industrial education and its value in the 
schools in one form or another is no longer even a matter 
for argument in many communities. 

In our elementary schools as now constituted we have 
in our progressive cities manual training, domestic sci- 
ence, and art and shop work. Many of the high schools 
in these cities have made manual training the prime ele- 
ment in certain courses and wherever these manual 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 185 

training, practical or mechanical arts high schools have 
been established they have come to stay. 

Arguments in Favor of Plan Suggested. — Some of the 
arguments for the establishment of the intermediate 
schools viewed from the angle of the public elementary 
school itself may be stated as follows: (i) At present 
many boys and girls in the elementary schools are over 
age and leave in large numbers without completing more 
than six grades, and this large amount of retardation and 
elimination and its consequent waste and loss in efficiency 
has made a reorganization and readjustment of aims 
imperative. (2) Much of the difficulty in our school 
work is due to the faulty course of study, along with 
which may be linked poor teaching. (3) Not only will 
the teaching in the intermediate schools here proposed 
be superior to the grade of instruction now given in the 
seventh and eighth grades, but the equipment will be 
far better than the average elementary school now pos- 
sesses. (4) With a thorough modification, simplifica- 
tion, and standardization of the elementary schools, and 
with no attempt to set up severe standards for entrance 
to some, at least, of the intermediate courses, the interme- 
diate schools should enroll nearly all of the pupils who 
have been enrolled in the grades. This should mean that 
the class of boys and girls who cannot afford to stay in 
school beyond their fifteenth birthday will predominate. 
Here, then, should be the backbone of the American 
system of education. Here, if anywhere, must be taught 
the fundamental subjects upon which the success or fail- 
ure in after-life of this class of pupils must largely depend. 

No detailed discussion of the work of the seventh and 
eighth grades as it exists to-day will be attempted here. 
For, in all the plans suggested in color chart facing page 



186 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

1 88 and which will be discussed in detail, the elementary 
school period ends with the sixth grade. The interme- 
diate school organization as proposed is radically different 
from the present plan. In general the scheme contem- 
plates that the academic, general, and vocational courses 
of the intermediate school shall be offered side by side in 
the same building so that that culture so necessary to the 
mechanic as well as the professional man may be offered 
to all. Running these courses side by side in the same 
building will very likely result in the shifting of some 
students from one to the other. This means that during 
the intermediate school years there must be flexibility 
in the administration of the curriculums and courses 
offered. It may be expected that the larger cities will 
organize more courses than the smaller communities will 
be able to afford. 

Problems Peculiar to the Different Plans of Reorgan- 
ization. — The color chart shows graphically plans for ex- 
ternal organization for different communities according to 
population, local conditions, and needs. Each type of 
organization has its own peculiar problems, which will be 
discussed in connection with it, but there are certain dif- 
ficulties encountered by all which may be considered 
together. The most serious of these is that of securing 
instructors really qualified to teach the work of the inter- 
mediate schools from the point of view of social needs. 
The organization on the departmental basis and the 
securing of men for the industrial and manual-training 
courses will be then the most difficult things to accom- 
plish. Applicants for these positions not only must 
possess a practical and efficient knowledge of the trade, 
but they will also have to be thoroughly equipped with a 
general education, and, above all, be able to teach. 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 187 

Another of the more general problems is the one of 
securing suitable text-books. The ordinary texts used 
now in the seventh and eighth grades will not answer the 
purpose at all. Nor will the texts used in the first year 
of the high school suffice. 

Still another of these general problems will be that of 
organizing the work of the seventh grade in English, 
history, arithmetic, spelling, composition, etc., for all 
groups, as that seems desirable from the standpoint of 
economy and for the better articulation of the elementary 
with the intermediate grades and also so as to prevent 
class prejudices. For the same reason, wherever it is 
possible to do so, the classes in the eighth and ninth 
grades devoted to the general cultural work should be 
composed of students from the different courses. In the 
case, however, of the industrial group the arithmetic, 
spelling, composition, and language work should be or- 
ganized around the particular calling the students are 
preparing to enter. As far as possible the curriculum 
should be socialized. At the present time, though En- 
glish expression gets the largest share of the time, often 
one half of the school day, the children fail to express 
themselves correctly, clearly, forcefully, or attractively, 
either in written or oral speech. To improve this con- 
dition, constant and definitely co-operative effort must 
be put forth. The basis for English work should be 
the child with his activities, interests, and needs. Tech- 
nical grammar should not be emphasized, but oral lan- 
guage lessons and dramatization should be constantly 
used. 

Need of Centralized Authority in School Adminis- 
tration. — In this country the affairs of the schools re- 
quiring expert professional supervision only are too 



188 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

much in the hands of the people, and this excessive 
freedom of American communities in the control of their 
educational institutions has not led to a wise and ade- 
quate selection of studies for the great majority of stu- 
dents. It is the exception rather than the rule for 
American school boards to investigate seriously the 
community needs and then to set up a school system 
that will function with reference to these needs. Thus 
we see in the United States to-day example after example 
of wholly bad school organizations due to irrespon- 
sible school boards. The smaller the community the 
harder it seems to be for the people to get away from the 
old traditional view-point in education. Some reason- 
able governmental control would compel negligent com- 
munities to do their duty toward all types and conditions 
of school children. There ought to be some more efficient 
method of organization, supervision, and management, 
which, because of the expertness behind it, would stir 
the people to action in providing schools that can meet 
twentieth-century needs and not seventeenth or eight- 
eenth century ones. The new ideals and methods in 
education which are developed in some of the larger 
cities have not reached the smaller places. The average 
citizen knows little about school development. It is 
necessary, therefore, for the impetus and the idea to 
come from some constituted authority. 

Explanation of Chart. — The following explanations 
of the color chart will make clearer the constructive pro- 
posals of this chapter. 

Figure i represents the situation as it exists in the 
majority of the high schools of the United States. 
Secondary education is built upon the work done in the 
elementary school period of eight years, and there is a 



NORMAL AGE FOR GRADE 




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RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 189 

recognized gap or lack of articulation between the two 
grades of instruction due to differences in aim, function, 
methods, and general organization. 

Figure 2 represents a possible scheme of organization 
in towns where there is no possibility of getting appro- 
priations for industrial or vocational work and where a 
compromise plan could be brought about. Here the 
programme is to provide six years of elementary school 
training for all, followed by an intermediate school offer- 
ing instruction of a general nature with the avowed pur- 
pose of giving to all pupils a longer period of training 
and a better course of instruction up to their fifteenth 
year, or through the ninth grade, than is now available, 
and yet not giving instruction either of a trade or of a 
vocational or even pre- vocational type. In this scheme 
the ancient languages and mathematics would be post- 
poned to the tenth grade, or high school proper, and the 
emphasis would be placed on history, commercial geog- 
raphy, literature, elementary science, the elements of 
sociology, and economics and domestic science and art, 
and manual training. Intellectual development is the 
chief object of the school work, and the manual- training 
work is added solely as a means for providing a certain 
training for hand and eye and as an added inducement 
for the longer attendance of many who otherwise would 
drop out. There is no intention, however, of teaching 
or preparing for a trade. The manual work will, how- 
ever, be practical and utilitarian and will develop a cer- 
tain amount of skill in wood and metal work. The high 
school work of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades 
following this intermediate department will be organized 
chiefly and definitely for college preparation. 

Another plan for cities and towns that have felt the 



190 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

criticism of the present time and are desirous of reor- 
ganizing their schools to give equal opportunities to 
prepare for the trades as well as for the professions is 
shown in Figure 3 . Here the plan is for the work to be 
sharply differentiated, beginning with the seventh grade. 
Those who plan to go to high school and college are 
urged to enter the academic courses, while those who 
desire specific vocational training find a six-year voca- 
tional course at their command. In the academic course 
the attempt is made to bring down into the intermediate 
department some of the high school subjects and, by 
using high school methods, train students more effi- 
ciently and in a shorter time for college. A modern lan- 
guage is offered in the seventh year and continues 
throughout the intermediate department, with advanced 
courses as electives in the high school. Algebra also is 
given in the seventh and eighth grades, and the English 
work is of a more advanced type than now found in the 
grammar grades. Latin is postponed until the tenth 
grade for the reason that it is thought better to gain a 
fairly adequate knowledge of a modern language first. 
This group of students who are going on to high school 
might be divided into two sections, and the exception- 
ally able pupils in the seventh and eighth grades who 
intend to go to college may be segregated, thereby saving 
them one year or more in finishing high school and en- 
tering upon their college career. 

In the industrial courses in this type of intermediate 
school the boys and girls who desire training for indus- 
trial work immediately on leaving school are given an 
opportunity to learn the elements of desirable wage-earn- 
ing occupations together with the general cultural courses 
which should broaden their ideas. The school should be 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 191 

supplied with as wide a variety of equipment as the par- 
ticular community concerned can afford. Machines for 
shop work, both for wood and iron, printing-presses, a 
bookbinding plant, apparatus in physics and chemistry 
for the study of electricity and other applied problems, 
together with equipment for the girls in domestic sci- 
ence and art, millinery, household management, etc., 
should be provided. This group of students should have 
a longer school day, and half of the time should be spent 
in hand- work and in the shop. The school could also 
for them .very profitably be run six days a week and 
twelve months a year. 

It is not to be expected that the larger and more pros- 
perous towns will restrict the curriculums of their schools 
when the need for such supplementary types of instruc- 
tion is shown. Some cities already have set a good 
example in offering opportunities of this sort. 

In Figure 4 the attempt is made to show how these 
larger cities and towns may organize their public school 
plants to offer opportunities for different sorts of train- 
ing. The intermediate schools are so arranged that four 
distinct lines of work are offered, followed in each case 
by higher or more advanced courses in the high school 
proper. The academic work is organized practically on 
the same basis as that suggested in Figure 3, but in addi- 
tion to the work offered in the former there are general 
and commercial courses. The general course with elec- 
tives in the manual training and domestic science group 
leads, more particularly in the case of the girls, to the 
city normal training-school or to certain colleges more 
liberal in their entrance requirements, while in the case 
of the boys it offers a good course of an academic char- 
acter as preparation for the ordinary pursuits of the city 



192 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

other than the industrial trades, and one which also pre- 
pares for the colleges mentioned above. 

The commercial course is organized so that by the 
time the intermediate school period is finished the 
student has a training equal to or superior, on the me- 
chanical side, to that offered in the ordinary private 
business college, and, in addition, has a fairly adequate 
general training. 

The work offered in the intermediate industrial courses 
should, because of the possibility of larger financial op- 
portunities, be much more complete and should be fol- 
lowed by mechanical and practical arts high schools, and 
also by trade-schools of an advanced secondary grade, 
where boys and girls may be trained for careers in the 
industrial world. The industrial courses may be treated 
" liberally" or " vocationally." In the general course 
manual training will function not as preparation for a 
trade but as a means of developing interest in and ap- 
preciation of hand-work, and also as a means of pro- 
viding the school another point of contact with life that 
will appeal strongly to certain elements in the school pop- 
ulation, thus inducing them to stay in school longer than 
they otherwise would. It will have the further liberaliz- 
ing and also vocatiOnalizing function of contributing to 
the boys' and girls' insight into the personal problem of 
vocational fitness. 

The commercial high school also, while it follows more 
particularly after the commercial courses offered in the 
intermediate schools, should be considered a vocational 
school and should be open to students who have not 
taken the commercial work in the earlier grades as well 
as to those who hold certificates from such courses. At 
the present time many school systems are top-heavy 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 193 

in that they carry more high school work and have more 
teachers in the high school and spend a much greater per 
capita on the high school pupils than the elementary 
school conditions would seem to justify. The increased 
cost of these different types of schools must be justified, 
and they must not be built and organized at the expense 
of efficiency. They should consequently, as far as pos- 
sible, open their immense plants and place their modern 
equipment at the disposal of all who are likely to benefit 
from the courses offered. 

Figures 5, 6, and 7 represent schemes of organization 
adjusted to situations in towns where it seems best to 
offer only two distinct grades of work — the general and 
the vocational. With the school so organized that the 
general and industrial types of work comprise the cur- 
riculum, the pupils can at least be given a taste of cul- 
ture not guaranteed by the curriculum of our grade 
schools to-day. In addition, each year they will be re- 
ceiving a larger and larger amount of industrial training. 
Figures 5 and 6 differ in the one particular that in the 
former the community is willing to offer a six-year gen- 
eral course and a three-year course of limited opportu- 
nities for the trades, while in the other the townspeople, 
being largely artisans and mechanics of one type or an- 
other, vote for the six-year industrial course and the 
three-year general. 

In the town pictured for which the plan in Figure 7 
is conceived the intermediate school comprises all the 
education the public schools afford beyond the elemen- 
tary period of six years. The financial resources are so 
limited under the present system that the best the town 
can do is to offer a two-year high school course. But 
as the academic training, local traditions and conditions 



194 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

are not such as to bring many pupils into the high school 
and retain them through the tenth grade, the scheme of 
having no high school and offering a three-year interme- 
diate school with both general and vocational courses 
should be popular, particularly so as the emphasis would 
gradually be placed more and more on the industrial 
subjects. This type of school organization should offer 
a curriculum in which the traditional intellectual sub- 
ject-matter is entirely subordinate, and the dominant 
aim of the school is to return its graduates to the commu- 
nity socially efficient in some degree at least. In many 
American towns this reorganization could be effected 
without much difficulty. Figure 7 represents an attempt 
to satisfy the wants of a small community, furnishing 
something more than the minimum information offered 
in the academic work of the one, two, or three teacher 
two-year high school and giving some practical voca- 
tional training for life besides. 

Need for Educational Guidance in Upper Grades. — 
There is another phase of this whole question of the 
reorganization of public education which is becoming 
more and more important and which demands consider- 
ation here. When one considers the relation of the ele- 
mentary to the intermediate schools the question arises 
whether the boys and girls at this critical period need 
careful direction and guidance in assisting them in under- 
standing their own needs and possibilities, their capaci- 
ties, and their relation to the school and community life. 
There is no period, perhaps, in their lives when the 
home has so little influence as at this transitional stage. 
All through the grades a careful study of the individual 
characteristics of all pupils should have been made and 
recorded by sympathetic and intelligent teachers and 



RELATION TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 195 

principals. These records should be sent to the teachers 
and administrators of the intermediate schools. A com- 
mittee of the faculty should be appointed to study both 
the records and the children, to become acquainted with 
the home conditions, and to ascertain the purposes of the 
parents in sending their children to school. Out of all 
this should come a wiser selection of the courses to be 
pursued by the individual pupils than can result from 
the hit-or-miss methods of to-day. Meetings with the 
parents should be arranged and many points of common 
concern should be discussed, as, for example, how to 
retain pupils in school longer or how to make the school 
function more broadly in the immediate life of the 
community. 

Conclusion. — Under these plans of reorganization the 
tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades will constitute the 
period of high school education. In this readjustment 
American cities and towns can provide a system of edu- 
cation which will largely answer the demands noted 
above and go far toward reconciling the conflict of aims 
now prevalent. Again, those who believe in practical 
training and social service and who have maintained 
that college preparation has too large a part in the plans 
and purposes of the high schools of this country will find 
points to advocate rather than pretexts for criticism. 

The colleges also, who have felt that the high schools 
have unduly broadened their courses under pressure of 
local needs by including subjects that should not be 
offered for entrance credit, could turn their attention 
more particularly to that group who are coming to 
college, thereby helping secure more unity in the work 
offered for college-entrance credit. Again, if the three 
years of high school proper be organized carefully, the 



196 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

group of students who are expecting to enter college will 
be given their academic training under conditions mak- 
ing for better scholarship and broader intellectual de- 
velopment than under the present arrangement. This 
little group of students, because of singleness of aim, 
will have a homogeneity that will make it possible to 
accomplish more than is usually done in three years. 
The fact that there will be fewer students dropping out 
will also serve to hold the group together, and in time 
there should be a group consciousness. Where lack of 
financial resources makes it impossible to offer other 
than the academic course in the high school, every effort 
should be made to give as broad a training as possible 
in the intermediate school. In short, it seems that some 
such concerted effort at making cleaner articulation be- 
tween our great typical grades of public education must 
prevail. As Frederick Paulsen says: 

It will be the mightiest problem of the twentieth century to 
build upon the elementary school as a general and fundamental 
form of school a new finishing educational institution, or to give 
to the elementary school instruction its necessary conclusion in 
a kind of vocational high school; a school whose problem will 
be the carrying forward and making fruitful of the general educa- 
tion for vocational activity. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE RELATION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL TO HIGHER 
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 1 

Clarence D. Kingsley 

HIGH SCHOOL INSPECTOR, MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF EDUCATION 

In this chapter we apply the term " college" to all 
higher educational institutions. We include not only col- 
leges of liberal arts, but also such other colleges as require 
a high school course for admission. 

Preparation and Selection of Pupils for Higher Edu- 
cational Institutions. — Preparation for college has been 
and still is to a large extent defined in terms of certain 
subjects which have been considered of special value for 
general intellectual discipline. The subjects prescribed 
by colleges of liberal arts were so highly regarded for dis- 
ciplinary purposes that agricultural and engineering col- 
leges followed the same practice. The " formal discipline" 
theory is now called into question and in its place we 
recognize the value of definite training for specific pur- 

1 Another important aspect of the chapter topic not treated in this 
discussion should be here kept in mind — the conception, namely, of secon- 
dary education which shall embrace the work of the freshman and soph- 
omore years of the ordinary liberal arts college curriculum. For very 
suggestive discussions of this important administrative and pedagogical 
issue the reader is referred to two recent issues of the School Review: — ■ 
articles in the issue of January, 1913, by C. H. Judd and by J. R. Angell; 
and an article in the issue of March, ioi3,by C. L. McLane, describing 
such an " extended-upward " high school at Fresno, Cal. — Editor. 

197 



198 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

poses both liberal and vocational. The reorganization 
of secondary education is a task which requires intimate 
knowledge of pupils from fourteen to eighteen years of 
age as well as a comprehension of the needs of society. 
The accomplishment of this task calls for the sym- 
pathetic co-operation of all educational agencies. To 
this end the largest possible freedom should be extended 
to the high school, and the college should be asked to 
criticise the product of the high school in terms of breadth 
of outlook, seriousness of purpose, and command of the 
intellectual tools which the pupil must use in college. In 
this chapter I shall outline the considerations which seem 
to me essential in planning college-preparatory curric- 
ulums. 

Heretofore, the training of pupils has been regarded as 
the absorbing concern of the high schools. Hereafter, 
these schools should be of increasing service to higher 
education by discovering pupils of ability and by aiding 
such pupils in choosing the particular institution that 
will equip them to be of the greatest value to society. 
To perform this service the high school must organize 
two agencies ; namely, the general curriculum and educa- 
tional guidance. In this chapter I shall briefly describe 
the general curriculum and also educational guidance. 

I. CONSIDERATIONS ESSENTIAL IN PLANNING COLLEGE- 
PREPARATORY CURRICULUMS 

The Previous Experience, the Capacity, and the Inter- 
ests of the Pupil. — Unless the course of study in each 
subject is organized with direct reference to the previous 
experience, the capacity, and the interests of the boy or 
girl, satisfactory results cannot be expected, and many 
pupils who contemplated going to a higher institution 



RELATION TO HIGHER INSTITUTIONS 199 

will conclude that they are misfits and, as a result, either 
take up other school work or leave school. The combina- 
tion of subjects occasionally given to college-preparatory 
students in the first year, namely, ancient history, Latin, 
algebra, and college-preparatory English, is peculiarly 
inappropriate to the vast majority of boys and girls 
fourteen years of age, including those who would make 
excellent material for the A.B. course in a college of 
liberal arts. Unless the work of the first year is revised 
speedily, the defection of capable pupils from college- 
preparatory ranks is likely to grow still more serious. 

Subjects Used as Tools in Higher Educational Insti- 
tutions. — The colleges should indicate the subjects and 
the parts of subjects that are essential as tools in the work 
of the institution as a whole. It is generally recognized 
that the best command of English expression that may be 
expected of a pupil eighteen years of age is fundamen- 
tal in all higher educational institutions. In engineer- 
ing colleges a large part of the work is dependent upon 
mathematics. In colleges of liberal arts Latin was indis- 
pensable when text-books in all subjects were written in 
Latin, but at the present time no subject other than 
English composition seems to be employed as a tool in 
the work of the college as a whole. If the use of either 
German or French becomes common in the departments 
of the college, then we have the problem of furnishing a 
genuine command of that language. This result could 
not be secured by reading two or three years of the usual 
college-preparatory, modern-language literature. 

Distribution and Concentration. — It is desirable that 
the curriculum of each pupil going to a higher educa- 
tional institution should be organized as far as possible 
in accordance with two principles: distribution and con- 



200 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

centration. The first of these principles mitigates against 
narrowness and overspecialization. According to this 
principle, subjects should be so chosen as to introduce the 
pupil into several relatively diverse fields of knowledge. 
The subjects of secondary education may for this pur- 
pose be classified in the following six groups, and it seems 
reasonable that each pupil should take work in at least 
four or five of them: 

(i) Language 

a. English. 

b. Ancient language. 

c. Modern foreign language. 

(2) Natural Sciences 

a. Physical. 

b. Biological. 

(3) Social Studies 

a. Social activities of the past — history. 

b. Social activities of the present — economics, 

civics, geography, survey of vocations. 

(4) Mathematics 

a. Pure. 

b. Applied. 

(5) Practical Arts 

a. Business. 

b. Agriculture. 

c. Household arts. 

d. Manual arts. 

(6) Fine Arts 

a. Music. 

b. Drawing. 



RELATION TO HIGHER INSTITUTIONS 201 

The second of these principles, concentration, is in- 
tended to give command of methods in any given field of 
knowledge and to prevent superficiality and dilettan- 
teism. Such command of methods may ordinarily be 
secured only when a subject is so organized that the 
advanced work calls for the application and review of 
elementary principles and processes. Such a coherent 
course extending over three years, and amounting to one 
"unit" each year, is coming to be known as a high school 
major, and a course of two units is called a minor. High 
schools and colleges should co-operate to determine how 
many majors or how many majors and minors are es- 
sential to produce a strong curriculum. 

The educational value of a major is not wholly mea- 
sured by the extent to which the advanced work depends 
upon the elementary work; the close connection of the 
subject with the previous experience of the pupil and 
the extent to which it enables him to interpret his own 
experience are of even greater value in strengthening his 
intellectual processes. For this reason majors in natural 
science and in social studies will undoubtedly, when well 
organized, be for many pupils of greater educational value 
than majors in either foreign languages or mathematics. 
It is even possible that a major in household arts, when it 
includes applied sciences and applied design, may prove 
of greater educational value to some girls than a major 
in mathematics. 

Objections to Requirement that All College-Prepara- 
tory Pupils Concentrate in Foreign Languages and 
Mathematics. — It seems unwise to require every pupil 
who desires to go to college to concentrate in foreign lan- 
guages and mathematics since this requirement debars 
from college many pupils who would otherwise fill impor- 



202 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tant places in life. Of course, mathematics is indispen- 
sable in engineering and foreign languages are essential 
to certain courses in higher education, but the needs of 
society are not limited to such fields. 

A number of colleges still require, in addition to En- 
glish, two foreign languages. This concentration upon 
the language group of studies seems excessive as it 
leaves little opportunity to apply the principle of dis- 
tribution or to recognize individual interests. 

Training for Citizenship. — Even for those who intend 
to enter a higher educational institution, the public tax- 
supported high school cannot neglect training for citizen- 
ship or delegate it to the college because, first, there is 
no guarantee that any particular pupil will actually at- 
tend college, and, second, the formation of civic ideals 
and participation in some form of community activities is 
essential during the adolescent period. For this purpose 
a course dealing with the social activities in the pupil's 
own community and with movements for human better- 
ment, local and national, must find place in the curricu- 
lum of the pupil preparing for a higher institution. 

Limitations of Small High Schools. — Every discussion 
of preparation for higher educational institutions should 
take into account the small high schools with two, three, 
or four teachers. These schools are factors of large im- 
portance in rural communities and should contribute to 
the solution of the rural-life problem, thereby directly 
touching the national welfare. The requirement of any 
subject that meets the needs of only the few preparing 
for those colleges that make such requirement compels 
these small high schools either to sever their relations 
with these colleges, or to neglect the needs of the ma- 
jority, or to jeopardize efficiency by offering instruction 



RELATION TO HIGHER INSTITUTIONS 203 

in a larger number of subjects than is consistent with 
good results. 

In particular, the requirement of four years of Latin 
for admission to the A.B. course in certain colleges of 
liberal arts is especially burdensome so long as the small 
high schools try to meet it. Desirable as it would be to 
keep the way open for pupils who desire to go to these 
colleges, the cost is almost prohibitive. Three Latin 
classes must be instructed each year; namely, first year, 
second year, and an advanced class reading Cicero one 
year and Virgil the next. Consequently, the Latin in- 
struction costs practically half the salary of one teacher. 
One modern language and no ancient language would 
undoubtedly be far more effective in the school having 
only two or three teachers. 

II. THE GENERAL CURRICULUM 

Need for the General Curriculum. — While there are no 
national statistics available as to the proportion of high 
school pupils who are not decided upon their vocation or 
their education beyond the high school, there is abun- 
dant evidence to show that the proportion is large, espe- 
cially in the first and second years of the high school. 
For these pupils a general curriculum is needed in which 
the attempt shall be deliberately made to help pupils 
discover their aptitudes and decide wisely upon their 
educational careers. The fundamental idea in the gen- 
eral curriculum should be that of the discovery and the 
testing of aptitudes together with a broad survey of 
vocations and of educational opportunities. In this 
curriculum the principle of distribution will be empha- 
sized. As pupils discover their aptitudes and decide 
upon their vocations or educational careers they should 



204 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

be transferred from the general curriculum to a special- 
ized curriculum. Many high schools have a so-called 
general curriculum which is a mere hodge podge. The 
grounds upon which certain subjects are listed as required 
is vague and illogical, and little guidance is given in the 
choice of electives. 

Relation of the General Curriculum to Higher Educa- 
tion. — It is evident that this general curriculum, when 
properly planned and conducted, will be the means of 
securing for higher education many pupils of excellent 
ability. There are two main reasons why the decision 
upon higher education so often cannot wisely be made 
until the third or fourth year; namely, first, aptitudes 
often develop slowly, and, second, contact with high 
school teachers, an enlarged view of the opportunities 
and responsibilities of life, and the development of per- 
sonal ideals create the desire for more adequate equip- 
ment for life. To-day the large majority of pupils come 
from homes where neither father nor mother has had the 
benefits of even a high school education to say nothing 
of a college education. While these parents are ambitious 
for their children they have no first-hand knowledge of 
higher educational opportunities. 

The absence of such a well-planned general curriculum 
in the American high school is in part due to the present 
lack of flexibility in college-entrance requirements, com- 
pelling the pupil to decide, upon entering the high school, 
whether or not he will prepare for college. This forced 
decision works harm both ways. Many who begin the 
present college-preparatory curriculum leave school be- 
cause the work makes no appeal. Others who do not 
commence the college-preparatory curriculum would later 
decide to go to college if they could get entrance credit 
for work already done. 



RELATION TO HIGHER INSTITUTIONS 205 



in. EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE 

Educational Guidance Defined. — By educational gui- 
dance is meant the assistance which the school should give 
the pupil in choosing educational opportunities wisely, 
including the choice of electives within the high school, 
the decision as to attendance upon a higher educational 
institution, and the selection of a particular institution. 
This guidance does not imply that the school is to choose 
for the individual; it implies that the school is to furnish 
all necessary information upon which the pupil may base 
an intelligent choice and that it should aim to develop 
in him the power to make wise decisions. 

Educational guidance is closely related to vocational 
guidance but is not identical with it. The studies chosen 
before a vocation is selected should help reveal abilities 
and aptitudes, and should in consequence help in voca- 
tional guidance. When a vocation is selected many 
studies will be determined thereby, while others will be 
based upon supplementary needs. Educational gui- 
dance is really broader than vocational guidance, since it 
must assist in the choice of avocations as well as voca- 
tions and must consider preparation for all the duties of 
life, including duties as a member of the family, the com- 
munity, the state, and other social groups. 

Guidance in Choosing Electives. — Under a proper sys- 
tem of guidance much of the objection to electives in 
the high school will vanish. The value of each subject 
should be discussed with the pupils and printed state- 
ments given them as a basis of conference with their 
parents. When pupils have chosen their electives it is 
desirable that they should explain why they think these 
particular subjects will meet their own needs and super- 



206 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ficial reasons should not be accepted. This kind of 
guidance will help develop a thoughtful attitude toward 
school work and in consequence yield larger returns in 
both character and intellectual development. This kind 
of training in choice will be excellent preparation for the 
wise use of the elective system in college. 

Higher educational institutions would render a dis- 
tinct service by formulating statements of the way in 
which various high school subjects will be of assistance 
in higher education. Such statements as these would 
be welcomed by the high schools as a means of increasing 
the interest of pupils in their work. A mere list of pre- 
scribed subjects seems to have no particular value in 
developing genuine interest. 

Decision as to Higher Education. — It is occasionally 
difficult to decide whether or not to encourage a par- 
ticular pupil to go to a higher educational institution. 
Sometimes his parents are so much in need of his assis- 
tance and sometimes his capacity is so limited or his 
ambition so meagre that he ought to go directly to work. 
In that case, however, he should be impressed with the 
fact that the high school cannot complete his education 
and that he must improve such educational opportunities 
as may lie within his reach. 

The need for vocational training beyond the high 
school is best appreciated when the pupil has chosen his 
vocation, but even before that time he should be im- 
pressed with the fact that vocations for which thorough 
preparation, more or less specific, is not needed are con- 
tinually declining in number and in importance. The 
need for continued liberal education should be based 
upon its importance in developing leaders who can grap- 
ple in a large way with the problems of the day and upon 



RELATION TO HIGHER INSTITUTIONS 207 

its power to give increased enjoyment and fuller under- 
standing of life. Too often liberal education has been 
pictured by high school pupils as a means of social pre- 
ferment, a polite endowment, largely remote from the 
vital interests of life. 

Choice of Kind of Higher Education. — It is impor- 
tant that the high school should give adequate informa- 
tion regarding the many different kinds of higher edu- 
cation. Ordinarily this is not done, and many pupils 
do not go to a higher institution because they have not 
heard of the kind of education that they think would 
meet their needs. 

The variety of higher institutions is continually in- 
creasing and now includes colleges of agriculture, archi- 
tecture, commerce, dentistry, education, engineering, 
fine arts, forestry, journalism, law, liberal arts, and medi- 
cine. There are also trade-schools, normal schools, 
business schools, and schools for nurses. Colleges for 
women are offering secretarial and home economics 
courses. There are also graduate professional schools 
for which a college course is a prerequisite. 

Choice of Particular Institution. — -Among institutions 
offering the same type of education there are important 
differences that will increase or diminish their value to 
the individual pupil. The teacher or principal who is 
intimately acquainted with the pupil in all his relations 
can often give guidance of the utmost value, but there 
are so many factors to be taken into consideration that 
the teacher must exercise great caution. It is generally 
better to give too little rather than too much advice. 
On the other hand, all information available should be 
placed at the disposal of the pupil so that his choice may 
be based upon the fullest possible knowledge. Such facts 



208 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

as the following regarding particular institutions should 
be ascertained and freely supplied: 

(i) Entrance requirements. 

(2) Standards of work required after admission. 

(3) Attention paid to physical development. 

(4) Healthful climate. 

(5) Opportunities for wholesome recreation. 

(6) Democratic spirit. 

(7) Civic and social ideals. 

(8) Minimum and average expenses. 

(9) Opportunities for partial and entire self-support, 

together with the exact nature of such oppor- 
tunities. 
(10) In case of a vocational or professional institution, 
success of graduates in securing remunerative 
employment. 

In addition to such facts as the above, much depends 
upon the attention given by institutions to the welfare 
and progress of individual students. While the boy 
should be impressed with his own responsibility, never- 
theless certain institutions have remarkable success in 
looking after individual needs, especially in matters of 
both scholarship and morals. 1 

x As an illustration of the administrative relationship of the high 
school, see the Appendix. — Editor. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE RELATION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL TO THE 
INDUSTRIAL LIFE OF THE COMMUNITY 

Frank Tracy Carlton, Ph.D. 
professor of economics and history, albion college 

Early High School Education Was Vocational in 
Character. — The first American public high school, es- 
tablished in Boston in 182 1, was intended to be a pre- 
paratory school for Harvard College; and, at this time, 
Harvard was almost exclusively a training-school for 
ministers. This and other early high schools were 
founded to serve practical ends; they were vocational 
schools. The one curriculum was definitely prescribed. 
By the middle of last century the student who did not 
wish to go to college and obtain professional training 
began insistently to demand attention. The line of least 
resistance was followed. New subjects were added to 
the programme of prescribed studies and advanced to a 
position of equal rank with languages and mathematics. 
At last the curriculum became top-heavy, misshapen, 
and burdensome. The next plan, perforce, adopted 
was that of offering separate curriculums, the so-called 
"classical," "modern language," "scientific" courses. 
The student was allowed to elect one of these. Finally, 
in the eighties, came the organization in the large cities 
of separate high schools, such as classical, manual train- 
ing, and commercial. 

209 



210 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Among the first concessions granted in response to the 
scientific and industrial progress of the century was the 
introduction into the old curriculum of physics and chem- 
istry. But the most revolutionary step was taken when 
manual training and laboratory work was introduced 
into the high school curriculum. The manual training 
movement offered incontrovertible evidence of a new 
industrial situation. It became evident that the high 
school was no longer to be merely a preparatory training- 
school for certain of the so-called learned professions. 
In spite of bitter opposition, the advocates of manual 
training persisted; they were the pioneers of a new epoch 
in secondary education. In 1880 the first American 
manual training school was opened in Saint Louis. Three 
years later manual training was introduced into the pub- 
lic schools of Boston. The Scott Manual Training 
School of Toledo and the Chicago Manual Training 
School were opened in 1884. Baltimore also introduced 
manual training in 1884. One year later Philadelphia 
opened her first manual training school. 

Haphazard Changes in the High School Curriculum. — 
Like the changes in the high school curriculum which 
preceded its introduction, manual training was added 
in a haphazard fashion. It was hastily stuck on to an 
already pieced- together curriculum in spite of ridicule 
and an appeal to tradition. The most beneficial result 
of the manual training movement is not the introduction 
of hand-work into the high school, but the impulse 
given to a scientific study of educational ideals, values, 
and methods. Since manual training was first intro- 
duced into the high school instead of the elementary 
grades, it is reasonable to infer that the vocational or 
utilitarian value of manual training was not minimized 



RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL LIFE 211 

by its leading advocates. Later the pedagogical value 
of hand- work was stressed until, in the words of the Mas- 
sachusetts Commission on Industrial Education, manual 
training "has been severed from real life as completely 
as have other school activities." Manual training in 
our public schools to-day is too often "abstract, isolated, 
impractical, and unsocial in character." And now the 
insistent demand is again being made for up-to-date 
industrial or vocational training in the high school. 
This demand is not merely an irrational yearning after 
a new method or for a change. It rests upon a firm 
foundation; it is due to the growing need of adjustment 
of the content of high school education to the kind of 
training demanded in the various ranks of the world's 
workers. The German educator, Doctor Kerschen- 
steiner, declares that it is erroneous to, assume "that it 
is possible to educate a man without reference to some 
special calling." 

Indeed, high school education has, in a large measure, 
lost its original significance. Culture is now stressed, 
and the non-vocational side of high school education is 
often upheld as its chief glory. By a curious, but not 
unusual, process of slow evolution the old form of voca- 
tional high school education is now esteemed because 
it gives its possessors ideals and mannerisms which are 
distinctly opposite to those bestowed by the newer forms 
of vocational training — in short, because its ideals are 
now non-vocational or cultural. Reform in high school 
education means a return to first principles, modified 
to fit the demands of a complex industrial life in which 
specialization and subdivision of labor are character- 
istics of prime importance. 

Since the work of the early high school was vocational 



212 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

in character, surely to demand that vocational training 
be given by the modern high school is not radical or 
unwarranted. It is the duty of educators to-day, instead 
of holding up their hands in horror at the alleged prof- 
anation of the traditional curriculum and educational 
ideal, to seek diligently and patiently to understand the 
course of progress and to prepare young men and young 
women for efficient service in the complex heterogene- 
ous society of a modern democratic nation. It is in- 
sisted that the past and past cultural forms are of value 
only in so far as they assist in the correct interpretation 
of the present. 

The high school curriculum has not expanded in an 
orderly manner to meet adequately new conditions which 
industrial evolution has thrust upon an unprepared 
nation. A few haphazard, unsystematic leaps in the 
dark have been made under the guidance of one-idea 
educational enthusiasts. The demand of the hour is 
for a careful study of the educational needs of the youth 
of to-day, and of the appropriate pedagogical methods 
of supplying those needs. One leads to an investigation 
of industrial progress and of the new methods of doing 
the, world's work in a democratic era when the workers 
are recognized not only as workers but also as citizens 
and as human beings worthy of living joyous and dig- 
nified, as well as industrious, lives. The other involves a 
careful study of the psychology of the youth. Each and 
every educational method and ideal, old or new, should 
be subjected to careful and unbiassed scrutiny from these 
two dissimilar educational standpoints — that of sociol- 
ogy and that of psychology. 

The High School Was Organized Before Large-Scale 
Industry Became Important. — When the American pub- 



RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL LIFE 213 

lie school system was organized and the American high 
school was made an integral part of it, large-scale indus- 
try, subdivided labor, great industrial cities, and a large 
and powerful wage-earning group of working men had not 
yet been called into existence. Its institutional form, 
which includes its curriculums, methods, ideals, and values, 
was developed under a now outgrown industrial regime. 
Time is, indeed, required to remodel educational, legal, 
political, and ethical systems so that they will minister 
to the needs of modern industrial society. It is the 
primary function of an educational system to aid in this 
adjustment. But the public school system is an insti- 
tution and subject to the limitations peculiar to insti- 
tutions. Institutionalism is a manifestation of social 
inertia. Institutions are the crystallized and formalized 
expression of social demands and ideals; but every insti- 
tution, social, religious, political, or educational, is the 
product of a former and usually outgrown balance of 
social forces. In a progressive country and epoch, at 
the moment when an institution attains a certain form 
and quality, new forces enter the arena and a need for a 
new institutional form is imperative. Thus education, 
which should be a potent factor in hastening and direct- 
ing human progress and in reducing social friction, may, 
when attacked by the dry-rot of institutionalism, become 
a potent factor in delaying the adjustment of social and 
political ideals to fit the new conditions forced upon so- 
ciety by industrial advance. 

Effect of Social Inertia upon Educational Advance. — 
The pressure of social inertia or of the normal institu- 
tional lag, reacting during decades of unprecedented in- 
dustrial progress, has caused the educational ideals and 
values of the early years of the twentieth century to be 



214 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

abnormally out of harmony with the requirements of 
the time as manifested by a careful study of the social 
and industrial situation. Any investigation of the high 
school and its relations to the industrial life of the com- 
munity should begin with a careful survey. While not 
disregarding the lessons of the past, or undervaluing the 
methods evolved through past decades, the students of 
to-day's educational problems must look to to-day's 
necessities. They should be progressive without being 
unduly iconoclastic. The haphazard, patched-up con- 
dition of the American school curriculum, the contradic- 
tory decisions of the courts of law, the widely differing 
codes of morality, and the dissimilar standards of artistic 
criticism of the present era are, in no small measure, due 
to the antagonism between traditional norms and stand- 
ards which were conceived before the modern industrial 
era was ushered in, and those norms and standards which 
are being gradually developed under the stern pressure 
of to-day's unique economic and social relationships. 
Both reformers and reactionists in the educational world 
have been too prone to appeal to authority, class preju- 
dice, superficial manifestations, and vociferous decla- 
mation. The resultant clamor and confusion have ob- 
scured the real situation and have retarded the calm and 
deliberate investigation of social forces. 

The proper function of an organized school system, as 
well as of a political or a legal system, is one which con- 
stantly changes to fit the shifting social and industrial 
conditions of the country and of the epoch. Not only 
has the division of functions between formal or school 
and informal or out-of-school education changed, but 
the scope of school education has been immeasurably 
broadened with the advancement of mankind from prim- 



RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL LIFE 215 

itive to civilized modes of living, working, and associat- 
ing. The scope of school education has been broadened 
not merely because of the growing intricacy and com- 
plexity of human life and industry, but also because the 
educational functions of other institutions, such as the 
home, the shop, and the home playground, have dimin- 
ished in importance. The school has been obliged to add 
duties which have hitherto been performed by other 
institutions. The home can no longer give the youth 
adequate training in manual industry. The shop, be- 
cause of subdivided labor and the speeded-up methods 
of modern industry, offers no adequate opportunity for 
the young apprentice thoroughly to learn his trade. In 
the process of adjustment involved in passing from 
small-scale and unsystematic to large-scale and routin- 
ized industry, social and political institutions including 
the public school system must undergo fundamental 
modifications. The scope of school education can only 
be definitely and scientifically delimited by determining 
(a) the totality or content of education in a given epoch, 
and (b) the portion of this entire field which can be ade- 
quately occupied by the various institutions which in- 
formally train the youth — the home, the shop, the store, 
the farm, the home playground. 

Revolutionary Changes in American Life. — During the 
last century industrial and scientific progress outran all 
other forms of development. Rapid industrial progress 
wrought enormous and far-reaching changes in recent 
decades; and, inevitably, as has been indicated, the so- 
cial, political, and religious life of society is profoundly 
affected. The young and crude America, possessing an 
immense amount of undeveloped natural resources and 
free land, has been metamorphosed within a few decades 



216 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

of bewildering changes into the America of large-scale 
industries, big railway systems, and heaped-up city pop- 
ulations. The American people are facing the gigantic 
task of changing their ideals and standards to fit an en- 
vironment radically different from that which surrounded 
the American of a generation or two ago. That which is 
desirable in an undeveloped, fertile, and expanding coun- 
try may become a hindrance or even a menace in a well- 
developed and densely populated territory. Educational 
concepts, as well as legal or political ideals, formed when 
modern industry was in its infancy, when it was differ- 
entiated into small and isolated units, when standard- 
ization, specialization, and world markets were still of 
the future, do not necessarily square with the require- 
ments of the modern integrated and interrelated indus- 
trial system. The complexity and intricacy of modern 
society multiply the factors in the educational problem, 
and cause the school to assume a more dignified and 
important role than heretofore. 

The introduction of laboratory work and of manual 
training into the high school was the direct and visible 
consequence of important and revolutionary changes in 
American industrial methods and social conditions. 
These strangers in the sphere of formal education found 
the way smoothed because of the rapid progress in 
industrial development which was produced by the 
Civil War. Trade, business, industry did not bulk 
large in the direct determination of American educa- 
tional methods and values until after the second indus- 
trial revolution which followed the outbreak of domestic 
strife. The laboratory and the manual training school 
are not content with mere passive receptivity on the 
part of the student, but require self-activity and con- 



RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL LIFE 217 

structive work. The introduction of these important 
educational accessories indicates clearly, to the thinking 
student of social science and industrial evolution, that 
the home, and probably the shop, had at that time lost 
many of their industrial characteristics. Division of 
labor and large-scale industry were becoming predomi- 
nant in the manufacturing world. 

The Practical Standard of Educational Values. — Not 
only do ethical and educational values change from gen- 
eration to generation in response to industrial advance 
and social modifications, but different classes within a 
given community often disagree fundamentally in regard 
to any customary or new educational project. For ex- 
ample, members of labor organizations will make de- 
mands upon the school system which are not in harmony 
with those made by manufacturers and merchants. 
And the view-point of the teacher does not harmonize 
at all points with either that of the unionist or the em- 
ployer. It must be frankly admitted that even the most 
broad generalizations in regard to the scope, content, 
and aim of high school education are liable to meet 
with opposition because of fundamental differences of 
opinion as to the proper function of our public school 
system. 

To-day one class of men who are insistently urging 
that the public school emphasize industrial and trade ed- 
ucation, do so because they wish an increased supply of 
workers who are mere workers or human automatons. 
Many influential employers in the United States are 
demanding in no uncertain tones that the public schools 
be utilized to turn out narrowly trained industrial work- 
ers who may become passive links in the great indus- 
trial mechanism of the present age. The business man's 



218 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ideal of a worker, barring a small group of skilled crafts- 
men, too often seems to be that of a plodding, uncom- 
plaining, narrowly trained " human ox." Systematiza- 
tion and specialization are the favorite watchwords of a 
large and influential class of employers; and the appli- 
cation of factory methods to the management of the 
school is demanded in the alluring name of efficiency and 
economy. Standardization, not individual treatment, 
is the ideal of the business man. The manufacturers 
were not vitally interested in manual training in so far as 
it was introduced as a pedagogical necessity in order that 
each and every child might have an opportunity to use 
his hands in some form of constructive work. In fact, 
the manufacturers, because they were taxpayers, were in- 
clined to oppose manual training as it was expensive and 
increased the taxes. The purely educational value of 
this training did not appeal to them because it did not 
directly swell profits and increase dividends. But now, 
when skilled men are an urgent necessity, the proposi- 
tion is judged very differently; an organized effort is 
being made by captains of industry to convert the public 
schools, or certain departments of the educational sys- 
tem, into special schools for apprentices and helpers. 

Organized labor opposes any open or veiled attempt to 
use trade or vocational schools as institutions to educate 
young men for strike-breaking or wage-cutting purposes. 
The organized workers of the country object to the prac- 
tical standard of educational values favored by many 
employers; they desire the American youth to become 
more than a "human ox." They also insist that voca- 
tional education shall become an integral part of the 
curriculum of our public schools; and they are strenuous 
in their opposition to anything which savors of the con- 



RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL LIFE 219 

trol or supervision of vocational instruction by the em- 
ployers of labor. 

The Social Standard of Educational Values. — Another 
group of people urge that the public school system should 
train efficient workers who are also thinking men and 
women capable of enjoying art, literature, and leisure 
and who will be able intelligently to consider the social 
and political problems which inevitably arise in the 
twentieth century. It is demanded that a well-rounded 
development be given each and every child and that all 
students be prepared for useful and efficient work in the 
community. This social criterion places a high valua- 
tion upon forces and policies which tend to break down 
class demarcation, to reduce artificial inequality, and to 
uplift the human race as a whole. The practical, or busi- 
ness man's, and the social standard are almost diamet- 
rically opposed to each other. The business men are, 
however, quite harmonious in regard to their idea as to 
the proper scope of educational work; the members of 
the group advocating the social criterion, unfortunately, 
are not. 

The progressive educators of the nation, those who are 
attempting to formulate a real science of education or 
pedagogy which will enable the public school system to 
become an important directive factor in social progress, 
ought definitely to place themselves on record in favor of 
the social standard of educational values. Industrial 
or vocational education should be made an integral part 
of formal education in an epoch or in a nation when or 
where industry has become large-scale and subdivided, 
when the home and the shop are no longer adequately 
fitted to impart vocational training. But since large- 
scale industry and subdivided labor are necessarily only 



220 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

present in a period of world markets and world inter- 
course, vocational training must be indissolubly linked 
with other forms of training which will broaden the out- 
look of the student, which will make of him a citizen as 
well as an efficient worker with hand or brain. The aim 
of modern education should be, if the aim be anything 
more than the creation of a nicely articulated industrial 
system, to produce men, not human machines. The 
school, according to a broad and reasonable social con- 
cept of its functions, should send from its doors healthy, 
efficient, and well-trained men and women who possess 
characteristics which will enable them to live as well as 
to make a living. 

The Function of the Modern High School. — The social 
standard of educational values requires high school edu- 
cation to be vocational and democratic in character. The 
high school ought to reach workers as well as non-work- 
ers — hence, it should be open late in the afternoon and 
in the evening as well as in the forenoon and early after- 
noon. In short, the high school should reach a great 
variety of people and give training in citizenship as well 
as in technical subjects. It should have a far wider mis- 
sion than to be a preparatory school for the college. 

That a large number of boys and girls leave school 
soon after their fourteenth birthday is a well-known and 
portentous fact. A large percentage of this great horde 
of children enter what are commonly called the unskilled 
occupations. The present ever bulks large in the eyes 
of the impatient youth, and too often he seeks the job 
which temporarily offers the best wages but which gives 
little or no promise of future advancement. These ne- 
cessitous or misguided young people are the workers who 
become in due time the " perpetual helpers," the fre- 



RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL LIFE 221 

quenters of employment agencies, the flotsam and jetsam 
of the industrial world. These are the young men and 
young women to whom our public school system is reach- 
ing no helping hand. 

It is highly important that students of educational 
problems recognize that the modern high school should 
stop the drift into a blind-alley" occupations or, at least, 
that it should furnish a minimum of training to those 
who are already in such occupations, for the purpose of 
enabling them sooner or later to increase their earning 
power and to enlarge their ideas of life and its possibili- 
ties. Into appropriate classes of the continuation work 
of the high school should go all young workers up to their 
eighteenth or at least their sixteenth birthday. Em- 
ployers should be required, as in Germany and Wisconsin, 
to allow their young employees to attend the compul- 
sory continuation high school. Why should the super- 
vision which the state exercises over the young cease as 
soon as the child becomes a wage earner? Industrial 
advance and racial betterment demand that the youth 
of the land be saved from the evil effects of the blind- 
alley occupations and be lifted out of the status of per- 
petual helpers. 

If the high school is to be called upon to fit young men 
and young women for positions in factories, stores, and 
offices, it is pertinent that consideration be given to the 
conditions in industry. Will factory work, for example, 
tend to tear down that which the school tends to build 
up? Undoubtedly, American educators are warranted 
in demanding not only vocational training but also an 
improvement in the working conditions in the establish- 
ments into which the youth of the country go. Public 
school vocational training and improvement in the work- 



222 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ing environment of the young wage earners of the nation 
should go hand in hand. 

Practical Proposals. — It has been pointed out that 
educational theory is subject to the retardation pro- 
duced by institutional inertia; and, furthermore, educa- 
tional practice always lags behind our belated educational 
theories. Nevertheless, in spite of this double retarda- 
tion, in recent years certain practical steps have been 
proposed or taken which give promise of the opening of 
a new era in high school education. A few of the most 
important proposals for placing the high school in touch 
with the industrial life of the community will be briefly 
summarized. These are of two general types: the first 
provides for industrial or vocational training for boys 
and girls who have not yet become wage earners; the 
second adds continuation courses for young wage earners. 

As examples of the first type may be mentioned the 
Cleveland Technical High School and the Washington 
Irving High School of New York City. The former has 
for its distinct purpose the preparation of "its pupils for 
industrial leadership." The school is open to both boys 
and girls. The course is four years in length. After two 
years devoted to manual training and " general industrial 
intelligence," the student selects a trade in which he 
specializes during the remaining two years. The English, 
mathematics, science, and other studies are closely re- 
lated to the shop problems confronting the students. 
The school is in session forty-eight weeks in the year. 
Evening classes for workers are also conducted. The 
Washington Irving High School for girls departs very 
far from the traditional ideal of secondary education. 
The teachers of the school write: "We have kitchens, 
bedrooms, laundries, nurseries, and parlors for the train- 



RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL LIFE 223 

ing of every girl in housewifery. We have banks, stores, 
offices, studios, dressmaking establishments, and tele- 
phones for the preparation of young business women. 
We have the staples of culture : the languages, literature, 
sciences, and mathematics for the training of minds, 
preparing for teachers' schools and colleges." 

The Co-operative Plan. — The engineering department 
of the University of Cincinnati has for several years 
utilized a system of co-operation with certain manufac- 
turing establishments in the city. The public schools 
of Fitchburg, Mass., have also tried a similar plan. In 
the latter city, the co-operative plan "is an arrange- 
ment between the high school authorities and the local 
manufacturers of metal machinery, saws, engines, pumps, 
and condensers, and other metal products." The student 
workers are divided into two sections. For a week one 
section works in the shops while the other section is in 
the classroom; the following week, the shop section goes 
into the classroom, and the other section into the shop. 
In this manner, the shop and the school have each a full 
quota. The student worker is paid for his services in 
the shop; he is an employee of the company, working 
half time. It is not intended that students shall be 
drawn from the regular high school courses. This co- 
operative plan enables many students to receive valu- 
able training, and to earn half pay at the same time. 
It is a unique plan for uniting school training and actual 
shop experience, for combining in one person the student 
and the wage earner. 

The theory underlying this plan is well illustrated by 
the following quotation from an article written by Dean 
Herman Schneider, of the University of Cincinnati: 
"The school does not attempt to teach anything concern- 



224 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ing the practical side of the work. It aims, however, to 
teach the theory underlying the work, to teach the intent 
of the work, to give such training in mathematics and 
elementary sciences as will enable the apprentice to 
become more highly efficient, and to give such cultural 
subjects as will tend to make him a more intelligent civic 
unit. In other words, the course has in mind both the 
thing the apprentice is to do and the man he is to be." 

Such schools can, of course, only be successful in com- 
munities in which manufacturers are willing to co-oper- 
ate; and only a portion of those desiring or needing voca- 
tional training are likely to be thus accommodated. The 
limit is fixed by the will and needs of the employers, not 
by the number or the demands of the youth of the city 
or locality. The co-operative plan is not looked upon 
favorably by organized labor since it places "the veto 
power over the boy's right to public industrial educa- 
tion ... in the hands of the manufacturer." The em- 
ployer may under this plan find it easy to dictate the 
educational policy of the public school. No plan for 
industrial training is adequate which merely aims to 
supply the employers' need of skilled workers. The 
school ought not to be reduced to the status of a shop 
adjunct. 

The shop is not primarily an educational institution; 
and the plans of the foreman may often run counter to 
the needs of the youth in the shop. If the student 
worker or apprentice is to become skilled in more than 
one simple and minute class of work, the learner must be 
transferred from machine to machine, and from depart- 
ment to department. From an educational view-point, 
the student worker ought to be transferred to some new 
kind or class of work as soon as he becomes proficient at 



RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL LIFE 225 

a particular job ; but immediate considerations of profits 
and the personal interests of the foreman lead the latter 
to keep a boy at one class of work month after month 
and year after year. In short, profits and pedagogy con- 
flict in the shop. On the other hand, the school authori- 
ties are not obliged to provide an expensive shop equip- 
ment and to hire expensive teachers of trades. The 
students work under actual shop conditions and make 
goods for the market; and wages are paid to the 
student workers for the time spent in the shop. 

The Public Works High School. — A novel modifica- 
tion of the co-operative plan has been proposed by Mr. 
William Thum. The employing firm is now the munici- 
pality, and the practical work is to be performed in con- 
nection with some municipal plant, such as water, gas, 
electric light, parks, etc. "The public has municipal 
work to do, and the greater part of this work could be 
done by clear-headed boys and young men from sixteen 
to twenty years of age who are under the supervision of 
the public works high school." Two shifts could be 
used. One group would work in the morning and go 
into the high school in the afternoon; the other group 
would reverse its programme. Six to eight years would 
probably be required to complete the course in the high 
school. Students would be enabled to earn sufficient to 
pay their personal expenses, and at the same time they 
could learn the basic principles of a trade in addition to 
the cultural training usually given in the high school. 
Men having six to eight years of such experience ought 
to be especially valuable in the service of the munici- 
pality. It has been estimated that about one in every 
ninety self-supporting young people of high school age 
are attending high school, and that, on the other hand, 



226 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

over one half of those supported by parents attend. 
Public works high schools would furnish work for self- 
supporting students, and thus give all classes of young 
people a chance to attend high school. 

Wisconsin's System of Industrial Education. — The 
State of Wisconsin has provided for a compulsory sys- 
tem of continuation schools. According to the pro- 
visions of a law passed in 191 1, in every city or town of 
over five thousand inhabitants continuation or evening 
schools must be established. These schools are to be 
under the control of a local board of industrial education 
consisting of five members — the superintendent of schools 
and four others, two employers and two employees, to 
be appointed by the local board of education. Continu- 
ation schools may also be established in smaller towns. 
The law requires wage-earning boys and girls between the 
ages of fourteen and sixteen years, and apprentices over 
sixteen, to attend the continuation school for at least 
five hours per week for six months each year. All work- 
ing permits granted to children fourteen to sixteen years 
of age require attendance in the continuation school. 
Employers are allowed to employ children under sixteen 
for not more than fifty-five hours per week, but at least 
five out of the fifty-five hours must be utilized for school 
attendance. The continuation schools are maintained 
by local taxation and State aid. The schools are sub- 
ject to the supervision of a State board of industrial 
education. In the words of Professor Commons, "The 
State of Wisconsin, at last, has adopted a system of 
continuation schools that is planned . . . first, to make 
the intellectual and artistic side of industry reach every 
boy and girl instead of a few apprentices; and, second, to 
make the employer and the schoolmaster co-operate with 



RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL LIFE 227 

and supplement each other instead of duplicating and 
controverting each other." 

Cooley's Plan. — Mr. Edwin G. Cooley, ex-superin- 
tendent of schools of Chicago, has devised a system of 
vocational training which he is endeavoring to have 
adopted in Illinois. The plan is similar to Wisconsin's 
and is undoubtedly modeled in certain respects after the 
German system of continuation schools. It is urged that 
the existing system of public schools cannot adequately 
provide vocational training and a separate system of 
continuation or vocational schools is recommended. 
The vocational schools are not to be controlled by the 
ordinary boards of education but by local boards of 
vocational training. A special tax for the purpose of 
maintaining vocational schools is advocated. ''Separate 
schools are necessary whose equipment, corps of teachers, 
and boards of administration must be in the closest possi- 
ble relation to the occupations. In such schools the ap- 
plications of general education to vocational work can be 
made only by men who know the vocations." The voca- 
tional schools are not intended to be substitutes for the 
present forms of schools but merely to supplement their 
work. Mr. Cooley calls attention to the necessity for 
training for social service and citizenship as well as for a 
vocation. But, it may be asked, is it not to be expected 
that special vocational schools controlled by separate 
boards and taught by special teachers will undervalue 
all kinds of training except the purely vocational? Is 
there not great danger that such an isolated system di- 
rected by specialist teachers will lead to narrow speciali- 
zation in purely vocational matters? 

Friends of the Wisconsin system and of Cooley' s plan 
insist, however, that sooner or later the separate system 



228 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

of administration will prevail. "In Europe the school- 
men fought this system bitterly for years, but after they 
had demonstrated their utter inability to keep the aims 
of specialized vocational training from the aims of gen- 
eral academic training the systems were gradually but 
surely divorced and industrial education was put under 
the control of separate boards." Germany's experience 
is, however, not necessarily conclusive for democratic 
America. It might not be amiss to suggest a possible 
compromise. The continuation schools might be left 
under the control of the public school authorities, but 
special advisory boards, consisting of employers and 
employees, might be appointed. Any movement tend- 
ing to break the public school system into specially con- 
trolled units should be very carefully scrutinized by the 
schoolmen and the wage earners of the nation. 



PART II 

THE MORE INTIMATE SPECIALIZED RE- 
LATIONSHIPS OF HIGH SCHOOL WORK 

CHAPTER VIII 

SOCIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUMS AND COURSES 
OF STUDY 

Colin A. Scott, Ph.D. 

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, BOSTON NORMAL SCHOOL 

Historical Beginnings. — There is perhaps nothing that 
characterizes the high school of the present day more 
than the way in which it is responding to wide-spread 
social influences of various kinds. In this respect it 
shows its vitality and proclaims the fact that although 
descended from the Renaissance and therefore old 
enough in tradition to run the danger of becoming 
stiff, it still retains the original spirit of reconstruction 
which characterized its inception at that time. Then 
the new studies were the classics and all that went with 
them — a new appreciation for the beauty and joy of life, 
for the felicities of language and for the free democratic 
life of Greece and Rome. These were life values that in 
the fifteenth century could not be approached directly. 
They were offensive to the piety of the middle age and 
even to its art and government. For although there was 

229 



230 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

beautiful art in the middle age it had become narrow 
because confined too closely to religious needs. There 
was also government approaching in some favored spots 
to the democratic, but freedom was, on the whole, an 
exception. And there was no native literature whatever. 

The mind of the time took the best and most practical 
way of approaching these ideas. It unconsciously turned 
to the days when they flourished and to the monuments 
they had left behind. It absorbed the spirit of these 
times not in order to venerate it at a distance, but in 
order to put that spirit into the life of every day. 

We have been at work at this ever since, but as time 
has gone on the logical march of events has brought us 
to a place where the classics can no longer play the role 
for which they were instituted. We have a literature, 
we have the solid beginnings of a free government, we 
have a new art, new sciences, and new industries. We no 
longer need the indirect approach. We are in a position 
to attack life directly. 

Social Pressure on the High School. — Social pressure 
makes this felt in the high school. The young people 
that fill our classrooms are bent upon living. It is here 
and now for them. Their parents behind them and the 
community as a whole are equally convinced. What 
can the high school do to prepare for a life or to give an 
opportunity itself for living that shall raise the standard 
of life and improve the means for gratifying it on the 
part of those who attend? This is the question at the 
bottom of the social pressure on the high school of 
to-day. 

At the present stage " courses of study" are the ob- 
jective points. It is assumed that "courses of study" 
form the essential features of a high school and that to 



SOCIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUMS 231 

change these would be to change all. It is, I think, also 
generally assumed that a course of study is something 
made by a teacher or by one set over him and that it 
represents a certain amount of knowledge regarded as 
valuable for some reason by the teacher or superinten- 
dent. It is not expected, in most of the high schools, to 
be regarded as valuable by the pupils before they begin. 
It is sometimes not regarded as valuable after they get 
through. It is not meant by this that such a course of 
study need be " hard and fast." It may be changed from 
year to year. It may be changed in some details within 
the year itself. Such changes, I think, represent what 
is called "elasticity." The essential feature is that the 
elastic part as well as the rest of the course is made by 
the teacher or his superior in office. 

This idea of the course of study is certainly a time- 
honored one. It was in existence in the teaching insti- 
tutions of the middle ages. The universities of that time, 
which usually had a contingent of boys as young as ten, 
regarded truth as something authoritatively handed 
down. The root and kernel of their effort was to pre- 
pare the pupil for the next world or to prepare him to 
prepare others for that period of his life. The Renais- 
sance teachers also dealt through the classics with an- 
other life and another world, although this time in the 
past and upon the earth. 

Superior Authority and the Course of Study. — Such 
courses of study must necessarily be made and engineered 
by the force of superior authority. The pupil must be 
instructed rather than educated. There is not enough 
in his current daily life, in the most of cases at least, to 
form proliferating areas, capable of growing by their own 
initiative. In the case of the theologically dominated 



232 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

courses it was assumed that the natural man must be 
made over and this by the imposition of standards which 
he would not be capable of conceiving for himself. In 
the case of the classics an artificial environment was 
necessary for success. Instruction was given in Latin, 
and in many places pupils were fined or punished in other 
ways who used the vernacular for communication. For 
the purpose in mind these practices were evidences of 
efficiency, since an indirect approach to life was necessary. 

To find teachers independent of the authoritative 
course of study one must go back to Socrates or to 
Jesus. The writings of Plato give us, superficially looked 
at, the impression that the pupils did not have much to 
say about the course of thought through which Socrates 
travelled. They were always worsted in an argument, 
and the questions of the teacher were loaded from the 
beginning. But a very little reflection shows us that if 
Socrates actually did converse with any one who came, 
on the street corners and other public places, their ques- 
tions and their natural inquiries, rather than his, must 
have formed the solid woof for the fine-spun warp of the 
teacher. The pupils, moreover, were always free to 
leave at any moment. Not much of the authoritative 
course of study in this. 

As for Jesus, His teaching, often communicated in acts 
as well as words, was continually dovetailed into the 
people's present need. He answered the questions of the 
Scribes and Pharisees. He spoke about and to the as- 
pirations of Israel, and He met the awakening interest 
of His disciples when and where He found it. His was a 
direct rather than an indirect approach to life. 

Change in Courses of Study. — But the closer one gets 
back to the great teachers the more danger one runs in 



SOCIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUMS 233 

seeming far-fetched and foreign to many high school 
teachers of to-day still in the shadow of the middle-age 
and classical idea of the course of study. And yet the 
social pressure surrounding and moulding the present 
high school is slowly changing its attitude toward this 
time-honored convention. It is demanding a direct ap- 
proach to life. It is undermining and setting aside the 
old-fashioned courses of study and putting in their place 
manual training, domestic sciences, various applica- 
tions of art, practical journalism, stenography, business 
courses, agriculture, architecture and building, econom- 
ics and the study of efficiency, practical hygiene, and 
many other modifications of the demand for immediate 
equipment for the business of life. It is true that as 
these new studies come into the high school they are 
offered as courses made by the teacher or those in au- 
thority over him. The old form tends to persist, and 
there are many teachers still who emphasize the authori- 
tative form and teach joints in wood as if they were para- 
digms in Latin. But just because these subjects grow 
out of the current life of the time and are already grasped 
by the pupils in their main outline and significance, they 
are continually tending to run beyond the form pre- 
destined by the teachers' course of study. What the 
pupils think they are able to do, what they show a natu- 
ral willingness to attack and a disposition to hang on to, 
come to represent a great part of what is actually done 
in the classroom. When a recent superintendent of 
Wellesley asks the boys in the manual training classes to 
bring to school the screens and shutters that need repair- 
ing at home, or when Superintendent Alderman, of Ore- 
gon, gives school credit for making beds, washing dishes, 
feeding pigs, and other home work, it is evident that the 



234 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

attitude of the authoritative course of study is not pre- 
venting a school interest in the lives of the children as 
they actually exist. 

In such cases as these it is, of course, part of the duty 
of the school to see that the work done is not left un- 
touched by the actual knowledge as well as the ethical 
influence of the school. Merely to give credit for feeding 
pigs as they have always been fed is no great part of 
education. The kind of food, its nutritive value, and its 
results in the proper fattening of the animal, graphs 
showing its increase in weight, its economic value in rela- 
tion to the market of this locality and season or that are 
indications of only a few of the problems involving the 
higher skill and knowledge which the socially service- 
able high school exists to impart. That this skill and 
knowledge are concentrated for one pupil upon a problem 
that lies near to him and which, preferably, he has chosen 
for himself makes such knowledge much more vital and 
no less truly universal. 

In some schools arrangements are made so that the 
pupils have control of a piece of land, and under the 
direction of the school crops are cultivated and the suc- 
cess of the different pupils compared. Clubs are formed 
for the exhibition of products and prizes given to the 
best. The interest of the whole community is engaged, 
picnics and excursions are organized which have for their 
central interest the work of the school. This does not 
confine itself to the high school but runs out into the 
upper grades of the elementary school. 

In Berlin, New Hampshire, the high school has for 
some years thrown part of the work formerly directly 
under the school board into the hands of the pupils. 
The care of grounds and buildings, e. g., has been so 



SOCIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUMS 235 

treated with the interesting result that the work was 
done more efficiently and at a considerable saving in 
cost. The keeping of accounts and the actual financial 
management of the enterprise by the pupils were the 
means not only of teaching the knowledge required but 
gave an opportunity for education in responsibility and 
co-operation. 

The Los Angeles High School. — The high school of 
Los Angeles, California, affords an interesting instance 
of how social pressure is modifying courses of study and 
leading the school to prepare more directly for the busi- 
ness of life. Among other things the high school pupils 
here, under the guidance of their teachers, have made the 
designs for, contracted for, and controlled the building 
of several of the new school buildings in that city. The 
superintendent of schools asserts that these buildings are 
among the best that the Los Angeles school board owns. 
It is interesting to observe that when real work of this 
kind is going on in a school it tends to transform the 
attitude of the pupils toward all of their work. The 
high degree of self -poise and organized responsibility to 
be found in this school are shown by a test made some 
months ago. The superintendent wondered whether 
the pupils could run the school themselves for a day. 
It was a new idea to the pupils and they did not seize 
the opportunity rashly. But after some time and due 
discussion among themselves they said they would like 
to try it. They named their day and no teacher ap- 
peared, but the classes went on as usual. Later in the 
day the manual training teacher got nervous thinking of 
the tools and valuable plant without his care and over- 
sight. He "sneaked" in but found everything running 
in perfect order and was rather ashamed he had come. 



236 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

This is, of course, nothing but a test and does not 
indicate that teachers are useless. It rather shows the 
great power of the teachers of this school, but, further 
than this, it shows the value of work which grows up out 
of the pupil's own environment and of which he can 
have, when he starts upon it, some notion of its purpose 
and import. He is then in a position to help control 
and guide its progress and, instead of submitting pas- 
sively to the teacher-made course of study, is able to 
make a part of it for himself. 

The detail of the courses of study dealing directly with 
practical activities and having a considerable vocational 
interest has already been dealt with in other chapters of 
this book. The principles that lie back of these changes 
are what most interest us at present. These principles 
come out in other subjects than those of a specifically 
vocational nature. 

The Practical Arts High School.— The Practical Arts 
High School for Girls, of Boston, is an instance of a school 
which has been newly established in obedience to social 
needs. It has courses in millinery, in dressmaking and 
domestic science, and a department of vocational gui- 
dance which takes charge of placing graduates in suita- 
ble positions and of following them up for several years 
after they have left the school. The art department 
is naturally devoted to special applications in these 
branches, and one sees on the walls of the studio studies 
of garments, fashion-plates, and designs for hats, as well 
as the more elementary exercises in form and color. 
The chemistry and physics departments put in the fore- 
ground the science of daily life. The gas service, the 
heating plant, the water, and sewage conveniences, to- 
gether with the chemistry of food form the main body of 



SOCIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUMS 237 

the work. Meanwhile, history and English literature 
are two subjects required of every pupil. Since these 
subjects are not vocational, the question arises to what 
extent are they modified by the general aim of the 
school. 

It is felt by the Department of History, at least, that 
there is danger of too narrow a specialization. The 
effort is not made to find just that kind of history which 
would have vocational value for a dressmaker or a mil- 
liner. There is no concentration on the history of trade 
movements to the neglect of the broader field, nor are 
those features of our present life which have descended 
to us from the past and thus proved their survival value 
made the exclusive starting-point of the work. On the 
contrary, history is taught as history and on the assump- 
tion that there is a real life value here for all pupils 
of any kind. People have other vital interests besides 
earning their bread, and one learns from the story of the 
past life of civilization how to become civilized to-day. 

It would seem at first sight that such a view of the 
course marked the limits of the present social demands 
rather than their fruition, but it must be remembered 
that these social demands have a vague background and, 
although the clearest insistence is along vocational lines, 
the public and the pupils themselves really wish more 
than this. They are not unresponsive to the larger life 
of the race. This would mean that the course is taken 
mainly for present interest. If not socially serviceable 
for a vocation, it may yet be serviceable as a mental 
nourishment for the social organism of the school (or 
class) itself. There is no objective proof, however, that 
the pupils, in a course made almost wholly or altogether 
by the teacher, feel the impulse to use their knowledge 



238 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

socially or to extend it on their own account. It is pos- 
sible and even probable that a few will acquire an inter- 
est which they will continue to gratify when they leave 
the school. But this is not making it socially service- 
able in the school itself. It is not the same thing as giv- 
ing to the pupils as large a share as they are able to 
handle in producing and directing the course itself. But 
it is only when this is done that the teacher can regard 
the work as a training in social serviceableness or can 
even be quite sure that it grows out of the needs of the 
majority of the pupils with that vitality which will in- 
sure this study or its results a permanent place in their 
future life. 

The Aim of Social Pressure. — The result aimed at, 
consciously or not, by the social pressure that is modify- 
ing the courses of study in the high school is the same 
whether these courses are mainly vocational or, like his- 
tory, prepare for life in a larger sense. The public mani- 
fests this aim in various ways. It criticises and com- 
plains of the product that is turned out of the high school. 
It establishes new kinds of schools and new courses in 
the older schools. These methods of exerting its pressure 
are authoritative and final, and yet they do not always 
reach the result aimed at. If our analysis is correct 
this is largely due to the fact that teachers take these 
new courses and turn them into authoritatively promul- 
gated courses run exclusively by the teacher and thus 
stand in the way of the pupils making a direct approach 
themselves and so handling actively, instead of receiving 
passively, the material of knowledge which seems to them 
practical and desirable to master. 

But, besides the authoritative channels referred to, the 
public is always exerting pressure in a direct way through 



SOCIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUMS 239 

the pupils that attend the school. This is shown by the 
attendance which increases or falls off as the school re- 
sponds or not to public needs. Although technically this 
pressure is held to reside in the parents of the pupils, 
actually it resides very largely in the pupils themselves. 
In very many cases it is these pupils and their represen- 
tations of what they need that influence the parents in de- 
ciding whether they will send them to school or not. This 
influence of the pupils is probably increasing in our times 
and in American communities, and it has become a prac- 
tical thing to recognize it directly in the school. The 
pupils themselves have become a considerable part of the 
public to whose pressure the school must slowly conform. 
There is no reason why they should not co-operate 
directly as well as indirectly through their parents in 
shaping the contents of the courses of study. 

Function of the Classroom. — The place to do this is 
probably in the classroom and in comparatively small 
blocks. The pupil's view of a subject is constantly 
changing, and he is capable of proposing to do something 
in January which would not occur to him in October. 
He is not capable of planning a course for a whole year 
nor, even in the case of electives, able to choose wisely 
one planned by some one else. But most pupils in the 
high school are capable of contributing something which 
will be found to be worth while in any reasonable course. 
Their modifications of, and contributions to, the course 
of study may very well be like that of the several builders 
of the great cathedrals of the middle ages. The work of 
each can be individual and unique, although massed 
together and organized into a large and comprehensive 
structural whole. 

An Instance of a Socialized Course. — As an example of 
what is possible in this direction, we may quote from an 



240 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

article by Miss Lotta Clark, of the Charlestown High 
School, in the School Review (17: 255): 

" After having taught history in the high school for 
six years I determined to have the courage of my convic- 
tions for one year, at least, and to give my pupils a fair 
chance to take the responsibility of their work and to do 
it in their own way. Up to this time I had conducted 
my lessons in the usual way. I had planned the lesson 
beforehand, collected what illustrative material I could, 
and in the class had asked the questions, explained the 
difficulties, and carried the burden of the work on my 
shoulders. The pupils had answered the questions but 
rarely asked any and had had no chance to get the real 
benefit of being responsible for the continuity and prog- 
ress of the work nor to plan, investigate or discuss it on 
their own account. I determined that the class should 
be a social group of young people and should have an 
opportunity to do just those things, i. e., to co-operate — 
to work together — and to give each individual a chance 
to do anything which he particularly wanted to do. 

"It seemed impossible at first to get a chance to try this 
group work; the conditions in the high school made it 
difficult. Instead of having the same pupils for five 
hours each day we have a different set every hour and 
they are with us but forty-five minutes. Some of these 
classes we see only three times a week and as a number 
of them are preparing for college and normal school, there 
is not a moment to be wasted. Furthermore I did not 
feel warranted in trying any experiment which would un- 
settle the classes and make them harder to control in 
other recitations. 

"In spite of all this, however, I determined to give the 
social group work a fair trial. I talked the matter over 
with the classes, showed them why the lessons we had 



SOCIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUMS 241 

been having were unsatisfactory and asked them how 
they would like to try the experiment of running their 
history lessons themselves. The novelty of the idea 
pleased them and after considerable informal discussion 
we decided to carry on our relations in the form of busi- 
ness meetings such as any group of people would have 
who had come together to accomplish a piece of work. A 
chairman was appointed from the class and there was 
something of a sensation when I exchanged chairs with 
him. He appointed a committee to nominate candi- 
dates for president, vice-president, and secretary. These 
officers were elected by ballot for one month and their 
duties were decided upon by the class and written down 
in a simple constitution. We had an amusing time when 
they tried to decide what they ought to do with me. I 
told them I should do just as little as possible in the class 
in order that they might have all the time and oppor- 
tunity there was. They finally decided to call me the 
'executive officer' with power to exercise full authority 
if necessity required. 

"It was surprising to see the change in the whole at- 
mosphere of the recitations which this order of things 
brought about. The pupils were timid at first and I 
trembled for the result, but after a lesson or two they 
became used to it and the work went on with far more 
ease and spirit than I had dared hope it would. Here is 
a brief sketch of the new kind of recitation : 

"(i) The president called the class to order and called 
the roll. 

"(2) He asked for the secretary's report, which was 
corrected by the class and formally accepted. 

"(3) The president asked if there were any unfinished 
business, if so that was taken up first, if not, 



242 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

"(4) The lesson of the day was called for. Whoever 
wished to arose and began to describe the historical 
events in the lesson. If he made a mistake or omitted 
anything another pupil who noticed it arose, and when 
recognized by the president made the corrections he 
thought necessary. Sometimes these corrections were 
not correct or did not go far enough and several others 
entered into the discussion. When there were several 
pupils on the floor at once the one who was recognized 
first by the president had the right of way and the others 
had to do the same in turn. That prevented disorder. 
This part of the work proved to be of great value. The 
pupils questioned each other's statements and when 
they could not agree the point was left over as unfin- 
ished business until the next day. In the meantime they 
consulted authorities to be able to prove their points 
and they used their reasoning powers to good advantage. 

" There were all sorts of unexpected interesting develop- 
ments as the work went on. Whenever difficulties arose 
we solved them together. My opinion was considered 
of no more importance than theirs. When we did not 
agree I urged them to try their way so that they might 
have confidence in their own judgment if they succeeded 
or see its weakness if they failed. Sometimes they elected 
officers who were not efficient and who bungled matters 
uncomfortably. The pupils suffered immediately and 
got some pointed lessons in civil government at first 
hand. 

"To tell all this sounds as if it must have taken a great 
deal of time. As a matter of fact we soon found that 
we had time to spare. The time which previously had 
been taken up by the teacher's questions was all saved 
and the pupils could easily recite in half an hour what it 



SOCIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUMS 243 

had taken them an hour to prepare. The reports of the 
secretary helped considerably with the review work and 
as the class grew more critical of both the history and 
the English of these reports, the secretaries grew more 
careful and very often we had reports read with which no 
fault could be found. 

"The roll call and report were sometimes finished in 
five minutes, the lesson of the day in thirty more, and 
we found ourselves with ten minutes to spare. 

"There were various suggestions as to what we had 
better do with the extra time. One was that they take 
longer lessons, and this led us into the habit of letting 
them assign their own lessons and they almost always 
took longer ones than I had been in the habit of assign- 
ing them. Another suggestion was that the scholars 
collect pictures and show them to the class during spare 
minutes. One boy said he didn't have much luck finding 
pictures but he would like to read things in other books 
and tell them to the class. A girl asked if she might 
draw some pictures from a book in the library and an- 
other boy asked me to get permission for him to take 
photographs at the Art Museum of the casts that related 
to our work. We did all these things and many more, 
and these suggestions led to the richest development of 
all in the work of that year. They formed themselves 
into little volunteer clubs, met at recess and after school 
and considered what they could do to contribute things 
of interest to the lessons. There were drawing clubs, 
camera clubs, and the club that brought in pictures and 
newspaper clippings and gave interesting accounts which 
they had read called themselves the ' Side-lights Club.' 
We used the last half of the lesson each week for the 
reports of these clubs. They all did well for beginners, 



244 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

but the work of the drawing clubs was truly remarkable. 
Never before have I had such beautiful illustrative mate- 
rial. A point worth noting is that some of the finest 
drawings were made by the poorest talkers. . . . 

"The discipline of these three classes was the easiest 
I had ever had and it became almost unnecessary as the 
years went on. . . . And what was the teacher's part in 
this new order of things? She was learning the truth of 
the statement that 'no teacher is equal to the dynamic 
force of the class before her.' Her time and energy 
were taxed to the utmost to utilize all that the pupils 
produced, to help to get materials for them, to find and 
suggest books to be consulted, and to give them credit 
for the work done." 

Such an organization of work consists in something 
much more than a mere change of method. Methods 
are only means for carrying out a given plan or aim. 
What is proposed here is to allow the public, and partic- 
ularly that part of it the school is directly in contact 
with, i. e., the pupils, to help to shape the content of the 
course of study in harmony with their most lively and 
productive interests. This will not exclude the full im- 
pingement of the best of the teacher's contribution. He 
will probably find a greater opportunity than ever before 
to impress his best ideas upon his pupils. They become 
more willing to hear and to co-operate with him when 
he has already shown his willingness to co-operate with 
them. 

The following chapter will deal with other aspects and 
further instances of this kind of organization. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE DETAILS OF CLASS MANAGEMENT IN ITS RELA- 
TION TO THE FAMILY, THE OUTSIDE 
COMMUNITY, AND THE SUBJECT 

Dora Williams 

TEACHER OF PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE, BOSTON NORMAL SCHOOL, 
BOSTON, MASS. 

Initiative in Class Work. — There have come under my 
charge each year during the last three years no less than 
five parallel classes for the study of physiology and hy- 
giene. Every year we succeed in getting a little nearer 
to what we believe is the socialized class and its co-oper- 
tive activities. I have here undertaken to sketch the 
intimate history of one set of students, showing their 
progress from the opening of the course, when they 
caught their first glimpse of co-operative study until 
near the close, when they had begun fully to enjoy the 
advantages of social solidarity. 

These students might be described as, on the whole, 
good scholars. They were bright, docile, and obedient; 
they were willing to learn any lessons that a teacher 
might assign from day to day. Most of them mem- 
orized well and many recited with great fluency. 

That they considered physiology a schoolroom subject 
and studied hygiene as a lesson, seldom connecting it in 
any vital sense with their home affairs or their neighbor- 
hood life, was not their fault. Neither was it the fault of 

245 



246 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

their previous teachers, who did but reflect the limita- 
tions that almost universally hamper the present courses 
of study. 

The schedule in physiology, like that of other studies, 
had been mapped out long ahead for the students, 
not by or with them as democracy would suggest. Our 
purpose was to cover the ground prescribed — a neces- 
sary precaution in order to disarm criticism — and in 
addition to make the classroom, as far as possible, a 
centre of genuine pulsating life. As to subject-matter, 
there should, according to our plan, be drawn into this 
extended course whatever of current interest to the com- 
munity could be utilized. As regards human relation- 
ships, these should be socialized. 

Most important to establish first would be the rela- 
tions of the students themselves one to another and to 
the teacher. These relations would rest upon a founda- 
tion of co-operative work. As this work grew these rela- 
tions would naturally extend more widely — like the ever- 
enlarging circles made by a pebble on a still pool — so as 
to include the family, the neighborhood, and, at least in 
sympathy, the world. Where, indeed, need they stop? 

The attitude of the class at the beginning and the 
means by which it was gradually changed can be shown 
in no better way than by an actual picture of what took 
place. 

The scene is a room intended for the study of science. 
Work-tables stand near the windows; there are cabinets 
containing models; charts hang on the walls. In the 
centre is a large oval table with chairs for twenty persons. 

The dramatis persona are seventeen active young girls, 
the teacher of physiology, and numerous visitors who 
drop in from time to time — a high school teacher, a phy- 



DETAILS OF CLASS MANAGEMENT 247 

sician, a girl of eleven, and a mother. The extra chairs 
remain unoccupied during the first six lessons. 

FIRST LESSON 

Enter the girls, for the most part in twos or threes, 
chatting in the usual fashion. They stand until the last 
minute, then, still talking, slip into the chairs which are 
arranged in a circle. 

A bell buzzes. The teacher directs the attention of 
the now politely silent class to the printed course of 
study for the year. It is made out in the form of topics. 
The so-called "Outlines," representing " What every stu- 
dent ought to know," have long since been mapped out 
by the teachers in conference and approved by higher 
authorities. They are spoken of as the "Required 
Work." 

How to use the outlines in connection with the text- 
book is explained at some length by the teacher. One of 
the topics is designated to be studied and recited in the 
usual way at the next lesson. 

Teacher (who has set forth, in what she considers an 
attractive light, the value in daily life of the study of 
physiology and hygiene). Now you may have a little 
while each week — half an hour, to start with — in which 
to do any work you are particularly interested in. 

(Class sits in respectful silence.) 

Teacher. Why not think the matter over? I am sure 
that when you studied this subject before, there were — ■ 
there must have been — a great many things that you 
wanted to know, which, of course, there wasn't time for. 
Talk it over among yourselves. Tell us about them 
next time. 



248 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



SECOND LESSON 

The required work has consumed forty of the fifty 
minutes. 

Teacher (expectantly). How about the subjects that 
you were going to work up on your own account? " Vol- 
untary Work" shall we call it? 

(The girls look from one to another. No one speaks.) 

Teacher. Raise hands, please, all those who have 
thought of something they would like to do. 

(Several look uneasy. No hands are raised.) 

Prima (timidly). I have heard of the hookworm dis- 
ease. I could look it up, if that is what you want. 

Teacher (encouragingly). Of course it's "what I 
want" — I mean, if the rest of you like the idea. It might 
be made very profitable. How did you happen to think 
of it? 

(Prima tells how she heard of it.) 

Teacher. How do you propose working it up— getting 
the information, I mean, and making it clear and inter- 
esting to us? 

Prima (half withdrawing into her shell). I saw an 
article on it in The World' 's Work. 

Teacher (persuasively, with pauses for her remarks to 
sink in). You could find still other articles, I am sure, and 
actual reports by Doctor Stiles himself, a most interest- 
ing man. Some day, if you like, I'll tell you about the 
difficulties he had to work against when I first knew him. 
. . . Last year one of the girls was able to get some 
specimens of the hookworm — on slides, you know, pre- 
pared for the microscope. Could you get any, do you 
think? ... By the way (to the rest, who straighten up 






DETAILS OF CLASS MANAGEMENT 249 

a little), some of you are probably good at handling a 
compound microscope. 

(Mild assent from several, who brighten up.) 

Teacher. I, for one, should enjoy seeing what you could 
make of this subject. 

(The class, during this monologue, have shown plainly 
their relief at having the attention focussed principally 
upon one person, Prima.) 

Teacher (continuing). But, of course, if we are going 
to use the regular class period, we shall have to ask the 
others what they think about it. See what they say. 

Prima. I don't understand. 

Teacher. Oh, I mean ask them if they think it is going 
to be worth while for you to take class time — whether 
it is or not, in their opinion, a suitable topic — one which 
they will like to listen to. 

Prima (in a tiny voice, her eyes cast down). What do 
the girls think? 

(Most of the class, eying the teacher, nod assent.) 

Teacher. Of course, this is the time — isn't it?— to 
speak right out if you don't exactly approve. 

(Class looks anxious.) 

Teacher. Does any one think it a little far-fetched, 
that is, not so very practical for us to begin upon? 

(Class volunteers no opinion. Then several shake 
their heads.) 

Teacher. Very well, then. Perhaps you can give 
Prima some hints about starting in. (Looking around.) 
If I may venture to guess, some one here has a doctor 
in her family whose advice upon any of our topics would 
be well worth asking — possibly a trained nurse — perhaps 
some one else equally efficient who could help us do a 
good piece of work. 



250 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

(Tertia and Nona raise their hands with an expression 
of satisfaction.) 

Teacher. Capital. I am sure Prima would be de- 
lighted to receive any assistance. ... In fact, if two or 
three of you should care to join with her (deferentially 
to the young girl) — with her permission, of course — it 
would be splendid. . . . Next week other subjects will be 
brought forward, I am sure. Don't fear; there are 
plenty. For instance: Who makes these laws about 
drinking-cups on trains, and why should they be neces- 
sary? What is all this talk about roller-towels in res- 
taurants? Who says we shall not put kerosene in milk 
bottles? There is a great deal more discussion about the 
care of children's teeth now than when I was a young girl. 
How fortunate it would be if you should be able to coax 
Johnny or Susie to see the dentist! 

(Class smile indulgently. This class, they begin to 
think, is not so bad after all, although decidedly queer.) 



THIRD LESSON 

The time is the last ten minutes of the recitation period, 
as before. 

Teacher. How have you been getting along with Vol- 
untary Work? On these slips I am passing around 
will you write any subject you have in mind — if not for 
yourself, for somebody else? If you haven't any, just 
say so, signing your name, of course. 

(Class looks troubled. All write.) 

(Teacher looks at the slips. Three girls out of seven- 
teen suggest topics. These are submitted to the class 
in the same way as before. They arouse more interest 
than any suggestion yet made.) 



DETAILS OF CLASS MANAGEMENT 251 

Septima (one of the best scholars. Firmly. Voicing 
the sentiments of three friends). Miss M., I don't under- 
stand what you want us to do, and I can't think of any 
subject. Won't you assign one to us? 

Teacher. Ah, well, all of us who do understand, then, 
will have to "throw light." 

(Prima, Secunda, and Decima, personally conducted by 
the teacher, succeed in piecing together the following 
explanation :) 

First, you are each one of you to imagine yourself as 
not necessarily in school — at a club, perhaps. Next, you 
are to hit upon some idea that shall help us all to live . . . 
to behave ... a little more hygienically, . . . more 
wholesomely, . . . than we are in the habit of doing 
every day. Or, if you prefer, you shall teach us some- 
thing about the structure of our bodies. Yes, take 
anything in the Outlines that pleases you. Only you 
don't want to make the mistake of telling us what we 
know already, or what we think is beyond us, or, how- 
ever learned it may be, is, in our opinion, too wide of 
the mark, or too trivial. ... It isn't your idea to inflict 
your subject upon anybody. . . . You want to serve us, 
to do us some real good — not to bore us. All of you are 
quite capable of carrying out such a plan, I know, and 
of giving us pleasure into the bargain. It is for you to 
ask us how we feel about it beforehand — that is, if pos- 
sible, you should give us some notion of how you in- 
tend to take up your subject. . . . Isn't all this a little 
plainer now? 

(Brows clear.) 

Octavia (plaintively). I have thought a lot, but I can't 
find a single subject. 

Teacher. Do you remember the Peterkins, and Eliza- 



252 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

beth Eliza's paper for the Circumambient Club? We 
have a minute more. Let me read it to you. (Reads.) 

(Class is amused. Cheers up.) 

Teacher. I suggest that at our next lesson everybody 
bring to class a newspaper or a magazine. 

(Class wonders what new trouble is ahead.) 

Teacher. Mark beforehand, please, every allusion to 
hygiene. Notice, besides, all the advertisements in the 
street-cars or on bill-boards relating to health. (Recol- 
lecting herself.) Ah, yes, this is voluntary work, so, of 
course, you needn't; but I hope you will. Don't forget 
to talk with the family at home, and see what they con- 
sider worth while — especially with your mother. I don't 
doubt she is an excellent adviser in practical hygiene, 
otherwise she could not have succeeded in bringing up 
the strong, rosy girls I see sitting here. 

(Some do not look so very strong or so very rosy, but 
the remark somehow seems to restore good humor.) 

Nona. Do you mean patent medicines, chewing-gum, 
and everything? 

Teacher. I certainly do. One of the most valuable 
topics given last year was upon headache powders. 
Some of the girls had actually been buying them without 
a thought of harm. 

(Class glance furtively from one to another.) 

Teacher. As for me, leave me out for the present. 
Forget I am here even. I am almost certain to go with 
the majority. At any rate, I'll promise to tell you hon- 
estly when I don't agree with you. 

(Class looks as though the mere suggestion of leaving 
out the teacher was impolite and quite impossible.) 

It seems scarcely necessary to comment upon this sit- 
uation, which, all things considered, is very easily ex- 



DETAILS OF CLASS MANAGEMENT 253 

plained. These young girls were far from dull. They 
had been endowed with at least the usual amount of 
enthusiasm, curiosity, initiative, and love of adventure. 
The purpose of the teacher was nothing more nor less 
than to give exercise to these qualities, which had been 
strapped down, as it were, by the conventions of the 
schoolroom and by a hyperconsciousness of the teacher's 
superiority. Thus they had lost their usefulness through 
mere inactivity. As this system of gentle gymnastics, 
so to speak, continued, the class, little by little, gained 
strength to assert themselves; the teacher retreated. 

The weeks flew by. It was now November. Every- 
body had chosen something to present to the class. 
Some of the subjects were ambitious, others were rela- 
tively unimportant. They represented the extremes and 
every grade between, and ranged from the careful pres- 
entation of such a topic as "The Germ Theory of Disease" 
to the mere bringing of a magazine clipping on "Fresh 
Air." A few students had contributed several times. 
The class discussions were becoming surprisingly free and 
frank. The teacher reserved her opinion until it was 
actually called for. 

One overheard flying to and fro comments like these: 
"lam not a bit afraid now. The work is getting a great 
deal more interesting. . . . Subjects are really not so 
hard to find. ... A good many of my friends are help- 
ing me. My father suggested 'The Water Supply' for a 
topic and is showing me how to make the diagrams. 
His friend, Doctor S., is advising me how to take it up. 
. . . It's too bad all the girls can't get over their shy- 
ness. I myself trembled at first." 

Class Organization. — In the meanwhile the class had 
organized and its business went like clockwork. A 



254 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

chairman and a secretary had been elected. Members, 
when speaking, addressed the chair. The procedure was 
dignified. The feeling of satisfaction was daily growing 
deeper. Thus the first milestone in co-operative work 
had been reached. 

Example of Group Work. — One day the work took a 
great jump ahead. An exercise was given which laid bare 
to the class the significance of all that they had hitherto 
been doing. It was volunteered by two girls who had 
been working in partnership. Their subject was "The 
Care of Milk." It had taken them several weeks to pre- 
pare — far longer than they had expected. The more 
they investigated, the more they found themselves in- 
volved in work. For example, they had written numer- 
ous letters, visited the laboratories of the City Board 
of Health, obtained reports from the State-house, and 
received pamphlets from Washington. They had col- 
lected pictures of model milk farms. Not contented 
with that, they had visited the headquarters of two milk 
establishments. In their own neighborhoods they were 
keeping a sharp watch on the habits and customs of the 
milkmen — yes, and on "their tricks and their manners" 
as they rattled from door to door. They watched how 
milk was handled at the corner grocery. 

Except so far as to give a few hints here and there of 
what they were doing, they preferred to keep their own 
counsel. The preparation for their exercise, however, 
and the setting out of their material, naturally could not 
help attracting attention. There seemed to be "some- 
thing doing." Three girls from other classes asked if 
they might not come in and visit. The mother and the 
younger sister of one of the leaders were also present. 
The girls had already requested that they might use the 



DETAILS OF CLASS MANAGEMENT 255 

whole period. Consent was given with great alacrity 
by their classmates but with some show of reluctance 
by the teacher, who did not think it wise to encourage 
too lengthy exercises. She thought the continued story 
preferable; that is, a short instalment at successive les- 
sons. 

On this particular day the material was displayed on 
two long tables arranged like a counter. Charts and pic- 
tures had been hung. Numerous pamphlets had been 
laid out for inspection. There was, besides, an array 
of some of the identical articles that had been confiscated 
from careless milkmen, contributed by their new-made 
friends on the Board of Health. Among the articles that 
spoke with ugly eloquence were a bottle caked with mud, 
stoppers incrusted with dirty grease, and a glass milk jar 
half full of ashes. Not only did the subject strike every- 
body as exceedingly practical — for the knowledge im- 
parted proved of a solid and trustworthy character — but 
the contrivances used in presenting it were considered 
unique. 

Co-operation of Outsiders. — The girls began by briefly 
recounting how they had obtained information, men- 
tioning first the list of books and the pamphlets that they 
had found valuable. Then they enumerated the visits 
they had paid and referred with gratitude to the many 
persons, most of them strangers, who had helped them. 
Among the number were several men of prominence who 
had ungrudgingly spared time to advise and assist them. 
It was their first contact with the rushing, hurrying busi- 
ness world, and they were impressed by its readiness to 
co-operate with them in their efforts. This little pro- 
logue increased the confidence that their audience had 
already placed in them and heightened anticipation. 



256 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

The two girls arranged rather cleverly that, since both 
had shared equally in the work, both should share in the 
presentation. While one was speaking the other acted 
as her assistant, displaying at the right moment the 
illustrative material. When the first stopped the sec- 
ond girl, without hesitation or embarrassment, took up 
the thread of the story, her friend now becoming the 
assistant. They alternated thus a dozen times with 
dramatic effect. 

At intervals they paused a minute or two for ques- 
tions. Occasionally they threw out a question them- 
selves, to see what impression they were making and 
whether or not all the girls were with them. "What is 
the best way of washing glass jars?" they would ask. 
"Is uncooked milk ever, strictly speaking, safe?" The 
talk ended with an exhortation in this vein: "Now, girls, 
milk is used in every household. We want you to take 
hold of this matter. Will you examine your own milk 
bottles? Will you follow up your own milkman? . . . 
As soon as you can we want you to report to us." 1 

At the close everybody asked questions. This con- 
gregation simply would not break up. All wanted to 
linger. It was considered by the class nothing short of a 
triumph. 

The teacher, also, considered it a triumph for the fol- 
lowing reasons: this demonstration was not only "vol- 
untary work" — something offered of their own volition 
as opposed to the assigned task, however agreeable — but 
it was co-operative work; it had been genuinely self- 
organized. This meant not only that the whole range 
of information had been planned out and presented at the 
initiative of the students, with the approval but without 
1 In a fortnight two families had changed milkmen. 



DETAILS OF CLASS MANAGEMENT 257 

the assistance of a teacher, but that, besides, it had been 
carried on in a distinctly social way. Furthermore, their 
aim had been social from the very start. As we have 
seen, they went into this bit of investigation with the 
definite idea of benefiting their classmates, whose ap- 
proval was to be the sign of success. In addition, they 
accomplished this in a truly social fashion by working 
together as a team. The idea of self was merged in that 
of the group. Not a trace of pettiness, nor of anxiety 
as to whether one should receive more recognition than 
the other, crept in to mar the perfection of their effort. 
These partners, by the by, at the start were but slightly 
acquainted. 

When asked to tell their experiences a little more in 
detail, they said: "It did take an enormous amount of 
time. We thought we should never get it ready, but we 
enjoyed every single minute. It is great fun working 
with a partner. We wish the other girls would try it. 
We are going to coax them to. They don't know what 
they miss." 

This, then, may be considered an example of volun- 
tary, self-organized group work — in short, team work in 
study. This serves, also, as an example of how the school 
and the community can play the game of social better- 
ment together. 

Effect Upon the Class. — This exercise, reaching in so 
many ways high-water mark, gave courage to the rest 
of the class. Other topics followed in quick succession. 
Some of the girls frankly adopted the successful features 
of this demonstration, always giving due credit to their 
predecessors. 

Viewed from the point of intellectual accomplishment, 
the class work had now begun to gain greatly. It became 



258 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

more thorough, more accurate, more liberal in scope. 
Questions — always the severest test of scholarship — were 
invited. An attempt was made to clear up every doubt. 
The results, as shown in oral and written reports (now 
required by the leaders so as to dispel any illusion that 
their aim was to please rather than to instruct), were 
strikingly satisfactory. Viewed socially, the class work 
showed that the co-operative idea had apparently been 
well grasped. The rewards thus far tasted had been 
exclusively those earned by social service. 

Recording Values. — A new task, which could be side- 
tracked no longer, now confronted the class. Were all 
these contributions, which had been given so generously 
and received so appreciatively, of equal value? Should 
they be included in the record of scholarship for the half- 
year? Who should estimate their precise worth? The 
teacher? The scholars then must. No other decision 
appealed to them as logical. This proved the severest 
test yet of their co-operative strength. Debate upon this 
matter became absorbing; it used up one whole period 
and ran into the next. At last, by ballot, strict justice 
so far as lay in their power was secured and, as they 
agreed, all personal considerations were successfully 
banished. 

We should here like to call attention to the fact that 
the young girl in her teens does not take overkindly to 
the idea of marking her friends. Admitting frankly that 
it is only fair play for her to express her opinion, she pre- 
fers, notwithstanding, to leave this matter to a teacher. 
"It seems too personal," she thinks. 

All the more important, it would appear to us, that she 
should not be arrested at this point in her social develop- 
ment, but that she should be steered through this dim- 



DETAILS OF CLASS MANAGEMENT 259 

culty as swiftly as circumstances permit. Here is an 
instance of the need of the wise guidance of an older 
person. A teacher watches closely the opportunity. A 
young person, so we find, can be successfully trained into 
a dispassionate weighing of opinion — the judicial habit — 
and a proper eliminating of personal feeling. Will not 
power in this direction give to the community a more 
useful type of woman? 

In this instance the grading — done by themselves — 
was recorded upon a large sheet of quadrille paper posted 
in full view. Each exercise was allotted proportionate 
space; that is, a certain number of squares, according 
to its value. The contributions ranking highest were 
those which the class had "got most out of." 

Raising the Class Level. — The completion of this 
chart was hailed with immense satisfaction. On sec- 
ond thought, however, there lurked misgivings. Some 
records had won deserved applause because they were 
such " sky-scrapers." Great was the consternation to 
behold that certain girls had done so little. It was an 
actual shock to find that, in the scramble to get one's 
own work in, others had been forgotten. Girls there 
were, too, who, for the most part, were not exceptionally 
dull or lazy, but perhaps shy, and by nature and habit 
unco-operative and exclusive. They found themselves, 
somehow or other, out of the contest, and nobody had 
noticed. 

Who was responsible? This was voluntary work. Of 
course, the teacher had foreseen from the first this sea- 
son of dissatisfaction and regret. Was it the teacher's 
business to prod the laggards? The students maintained 
not. Enough hints had been given, they said. 

Usually in a class the members feel sorry — of course 



260 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

they do — for those who fail, but they do not regard 
themselves as in any way accountable. In a co-opera- 
tive class the thing is looked at differently. If any liv- 
ing bond such as "the all conquering love of comrades" 
exists, it surely binds classmates in co-operative work. 
After a moment of silence — which could, without exag- 
geration, be called solemn — the class, with one accord, 
arose to a higher plane of social usefulness. "We didn't 
realize it. . . . This will never do." Then " but what are 
we going to do about it? " 

For a lesson or two, purposely, no special inquiries 
were made by the teacher, but she felt in the air a certain 
hum of activity such as might happen at some crisis in a 
beehive. "We are going to raise the class level," was the 
way they worded it. How? Devices in plenty were 
now thought out, some of which were as follows: 

To suggest desirable topics for those who had done 
least. 

To pair off in new combinations so that a girl weak in 
initiative should work with a strong partner. 

To give a backward student the first chance to report. 
Naturally, this meant a genuine sacrifice on the part of 
the most capable scholars at a time when so much was 
ready and when opportunities were getting scarce. 

To study to bring out at every point the views of the 
silent ones. 

There went on, besides, a good deal of friendly coach- 
ing which was never made public. The class progressed 
by leaps and bounds. Great was the rejoicing when, the 
work of the third term completed, the record of this class 
stood away ahead. Its total average was the highest of 
the six parallel classes. No student fell below eighty 
per cent, the passing mark being seventy per cent. There 



DETAILS OF CLASS MANAGEMENT 261 

were inequalities — that was taken as a matter of course — 
but solidarity had brought all into port with colors flying. 

Let us retrace for a little the steps by which we have 
so far come. It has been shown how, at the outset, the 
sense of responsibility was awakened in the classroom. 
Next followed the further development of initiative — 
imperative if new ground was to be explored and suit- 
able subjects selected from a bewildering number of pos- 
sibilities. Then came the self-imposed task of working 
up the information and presenting it acceptably to a 
company of classmates. "Will they understand this?" 
"Will they care for that?" was asked at every turn by 
the small voice within — the social voice. 

From the vantage-point attained, and in the glow of 
having rendered a service, it now dawned upon a few 
how effectively certain pieces of work might be done in 
partnership. Such an arrangement would furnish just 
the right person with whom to plan, to consult, to laugh, 
m times of discouragement even to weep, and, finally, 
with whom to share the triumph. True comrades, be- 
sides, would warn each other of pitfalls and would cor- 
rect in private those small mistakes which one is sure 
one never makes. 

Co-operative work takes time. On the other hand, 
time was actually saved. This was shown in striking 
fashion when it came to matters that required memo- 
rizing. From time to time groups were organized by 
those who showed special talent for conducting quizzes 
and impromptu tests. These new brooms swept clean, 
I assure you. And the girls as a body yielded with 
good grace to this unremitting and decidedly stiff cross- 
questioning, especially since, by drilling them in details, 
it enabled them to gain time for the voluntary topics. 



262 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Has there been surprise that team play in study or 
group work has advanced so slowly? At first glance it 
seemed capable of quick growth, but in reality it is no 
mushroom. Too many school traditions have for too 
long a time discouraged it. "I like to work by myself, " 
objected a "best scholar," who afterward, by the by, 
became an ardent convert to co-operative work. "Then 
I know where I stand. I might get a partner who would 
spend very little time, who would expect me to do all the 
work, and, at the end, would claim most of the credit.' ' 
So, indeed, she might. In this instance the class re- 
sponded rather dryly: "We don't think you can be very 
wise, then, in choosing a partner. Besides, if girls are 
mean, they soon get found out and are left out in the 
cold. We advise you to try again and not to be so 
afraid." 

Extension of Work. — So numerous were the outsiders 
connected with one phase or another of this work that 
those whose interest had taken some tangible form were 
enrolled as honorary members of the class. Nobody 
that could meet this requirement was too wise or too 
simple, too learned or too ignorant, too old or too young. 
The list, in consequence, was like this: my dentist; our 
family physician; the washwoman (who had overheard 
some talk about septic fingers); my baby sister; the 
butcher around the corner; three urchins deterred (for 
the time being, at least) from using cigarettes. In num- 
bers it reached nearly a hundred. 

In connection with the extension of the class work to 
outsiders it may be worth while to know that the mem- 
bers, during their last term, wrote a number of interest- 
ing papeVs, chiefly in the form of letters, describing their 
co-operative organization. Among their correspondents 
were several high school teachers who had started, or 



DETAILS OF CLASS MANAGEMENT 263 

who proposed starting, similar work in other towns. 
They exchanged experiences also with classes in manual 
training at Attleboro, with students in the Charlestown 
High School on the subjects of history, music, and liter- 
ture, and with students in the Framingham High School. 

Enrichment of the Programme. — A partial list of the 
subjects dealt with in the co-operative work will give a 
notion of the way in which the course was enriched. 
Under physiology and personal hygiene were included: 
the structure of the skin (illustrated by microscope slides) ; 
care of the complexion (warnings against quackery) ; the 
structure of teeth (specimens were furnished by a dentist 
acquaintance); the anatomy of the foot (how to choose 
proper shoes); approved methods of caring for the hair 
and the nails (fully demonstrated) ; the anatomy of the 
heart (specimens of the heart of an ox, a sheep, a chicken, 
and a frog having been donated by a friendly butcher). 

Family and community hygiene included: the public 
water-supply; the care of milk; shall we sleep outdoors 
and why ? how to take care of a bedroom ; a clean market 
and how to secure it; the reason why we should improve 
our posture (formation of a posture club) ; vegetarianism 
(a debate); and at least twenty more. Some of these 
subjects, to be sure, were touched upon in the outlines, 
but not in so live a way and never so exhaustively. 

The selection of a partner, or of more than one, and the 
organization of a group within a group, mean a long stride 
in the social progress. The little, self-organized group 
works for the benefit of the large group, the class. The 
interdependence of the small and large circles is felt by 
all. The class is now ready to find a way to extend its 
domain still further and its influence to a still larger 
group. This advance is, in fact, only a continuation of 
the same story. 



264 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Outwardly, at present, the work is moving along well. 
The class seems to be pulling with even stroke together. 
More is planned for each lesson than can be given. Visi- 
tors express delight. Other teachers plan to try the same 
principle. Why concern ourselves, then, that, accord- 
ing to the chart, some pupils are overshadowed by the 
rest and are taking too small a part? Surely this is 
always the way in school. The answer, we repeat, is that 
in a socially organized group there can be tolerated no 
"submerged tenth." The social conscience is aroused, 
the strong put the weak on their feet, and finally the 
class level, by the strength of comradeship, is raised. 
By this process the power of leadership, also, is de- 
veloped. The training is not aimed simply at the ulti- 
mate welfare of the individual but at that of society. The 
community sorely needs in men and women — does it not? 
— precisely the qualities thus developed. The co-opera- 
tive class, the voluntary, self-organized group, if it 
does its legitimate work, educates for social service. 
This is our interpretation of social education. 

There was a time when the feasibility of thus organ- 
izing classes at work upon other subjects seemed an open 
question, although certain portions of the curriculum 
promised, under such treatment, signal success. This 
period of probation is now nearly past. I have personal 
knowledge of successful social education in English, 
music, history, mathematics, and manual training. In 
addition, I have myself tried social experiments in 
zoology, botany, and school gardening. Nor have I 
hesitated to recommend group work in the modern 
languages and in Latin — indeed, I should welcome such 
progress most hopefully. 



CHAPTER X 

THE DIRECTION OF STUDY AS THE CHIEF AIM OF THE 
HIGH SCHOOL 

Alfred L. Hall-Quest, A.M. 

ASSISTANT IN EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 

The Need of Attending to the Technic of Study. — 

The problems of study already considered become even 
more significant when the importance of economizing 
the pupil's time and strength while studying is taken into 
account. Beautiful buildings and efficient administra- 
tion avail but little if we do not adequately supervise the 
pupil's habits of study not only in the class study period 
but wherever he may try to learn his lessons. No doubt 
many of us can recall our sense of utter helplessness when 
the teacher assigned a new lesson without giving suffi- 
cient directions as to how the lesson might be most 
readily mastered. Instead of rinding school a thing of 
beauty and delight, we dreaded the teacher and worried 
sometimes the night through about the next day's recita- 
tion. Unquestionably there has been much improve- 
ment in the technic of teaching. Teachers are now better 
equipped to prepare the pupil for his study tasks, not 
depriving him, meanwhile, of the needful self-initiative 
without which real learning is impossible. With all of 
this improvement in classroom management, it still is 
true that the great problem of elimination and retarda- 

265 






266 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tion makes it imperative that the teacher's individual 
work for the individual pupil be emphasized. The study 
problem is individualistic. While investigations show 
that there are certain fundamental laws in every learning 
process, they show just as clearly that there are marked 
individual differences which must be kept in mind by the 
teacher who desires to be effective in leading the timid 
as well as the ever-ready pupil to the front rank of effi- 
ciency. Educators are now recognizing that no small 
part of the teacher's mission consists in the direction of 
the pupil's methods of study. This function must deter- 
mine in the last analysis the technic of teaching. 

The Meaning of Study. — Before considering a few of 
the phases of the technic of study it is important that 
the meaning of study be understood. In the Briggs re- 
port of conditions at Harvard one student is quoted as 
saying: "I didn't loaf; I simply didn't know how to get 
at things. In those days there was nobody to go to for 
advice, and I had never read anything, had never been 
inside a public library. I didn't know where or how to 
take hold." Presumably this freshman had not been 
directed how to study while in high school. He did not 
know what was expected of him as a student. 

There have been various definitions of study offered 
by investigators in this field. Jones says that study is 
the power to see, observe, comprehend, compare, reason, 
and deduce. It is getting an understanding of some 
object. A similar conception is presented by Colgrove. 
"No cursory looking over the pages of a book is study. 
No attempts merely to memorize is study. Study is the 
attentive application of the mind to an object or subject 
for the purpose of acquiring knowledge of it. Study in- 
volves persistent attention, the continued or prolonged 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 267 

holding of the mind to the knowing of an object by acts 
of the will. Study means to observe with care, to dis- 
cover qualities and relations, to compare objects or 
ideas, to analyze a whole into its parts, to combine ideas 
into new groups, to classify knowledge ; it is investigating 
with interest, examining with a purpose, inquiring with 
zeal. Study is the self-effort of the pupil to obtain 
knowledge." McMurry suggests that all studying must 
be purposeful. "The study of a subject has not reached 
its end until the guiding purpose has been accomplished 
and the knowledge has been used in a normal way and 
has become experience. . . . The common notion that 
study should consist of thinking is therefore correct." 

From the foregoing and several other definitions we 
may abstract the following elements in a composite con- 
ception of study: 

i. Observation or experimentation in order to discover 
qualities and relations. 

2. Interpretation, invention, or fancying. 

3. The attentive, zealous, interested, and vigorous ap- 
plication of the mind to a specific object for the purpose 
of acquiring knowledge about it, be this object word, 
principle, thing, or person. 

4. Comparison of objects or ideas. 

5. Classification — the systematizing of the whole into 
its parts and combining them into new groups. 

6. Reasoning either by deduction or induction. 

7. Assimilation of knowledge gained into experience 
that develops, preserves, and refines individuality. 

8. The continual direction of this enlarged experience. 
Study, we may say, then, is that activity on the part 

of a student or an apprentice in which he seeks to become 
intimately acquainted with the history, nature, and uses 



268 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

of a subject or object. This implies that the subject or 
object must be understood as to purpose and various 
uses. In the ready acquiring of such knowledge or 
skill the proper application of certain functions in the 
learning process as instincts, imagination, memory, and 
perception must be highly trained. 

Correct studying depends also on certain at present 
inadequately understood emotional tones or moods 
which determine what phases of a problem the student 
will select as more significant for him at one time than 
at other times. Studying is not an isolated act. When- 
ever we attempt to learn something we make use of a 
multiplicity of incidents and even accidents, a variety 
of mental and spiritual acquaintances formed through- 
out our general or more specialized reading and obser- 
vation. Investigators in this field of study find that 
the learner is easily influenced by conditions of health, 
weather, and climate, each one of which may seriously 
retard the learning process. 

Of no less importance are the various educational 
policies that either awaken or stupefy interest in the 
things of life. It is coming to be generally recog- 
nized that the arrangement and the contents of our sev- 
eral curriculums determine to a large extent the pupil's 
attitude toward the main business of his school career. 
The high school does not exist for the exploitation of 
ingenious educational schemes. Being the creation of 
individualistic society, the secondary school must be so 
organized that all of its pupils, regardless of social or 
mental status, receive such training as will fit the indi- 
vidual for effective citizenship. This doubtless seems a 
truism, but there are innumerable instances where high 
school teachers have catered to the exceptionally well- 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 269 

endowed pupil and have neglected the timid, unaroused 
individual whose greatest problem often is to know how 
to study, how to use those powers of which he may be 
only dimly conscious. The high school, therefore, must 
have a large view of study as a process or activity 
whereby the whole, harmoniously co-operating individual 
becomes acquainted with several possible adjustments 
toward persons and things. In dealing with the problem 
of study, then, we are concerned with all of those forces 
of individuality that unitedly make the pupil efficient in 
attacking new lessons or in elaborating newly discovered 
truths. 

Factors in the Technic of Study. — The pupil at work 
is controlled in a very definite way by the school organi- 
zation of which he is a member. It is hardly probable 
that the average high school boy or girl thinks far beyond 
marks as a goal of study. The approval of the school au- 
thorities as represented in classroom marks or a diploma 
is doubtless a legitimate ambition of these adolescents. 
Closely in touch with the pupil is the teaching force of 
the school, represented by the principal and the teachers. 
It is evident that these have an inestimable influence on 
how the pupil studies. Text-books and other forms of 
literature as well as laboratory equipment are constant 
factors in the occupation of every pupil. Of no less im- 
portance are certain conditions in the classroom and in 
the home, not to mention all-important personal factors 
that make or mar study efficiency. 

Hindrances, often seemingly trivial, are nevertheless 
to be considered as bearing directly upon the pupil's 
success or failure. If the teacher knew the goal that 
beckoned the pupils on to classroom achievement, if the 
teacher understood the secret yearnings and battles that 



270 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

only too often sap the nerve strength and distract the 
attention of adolescent boys and girls a large part of the 
study problem might be solved. In every high school are 
individuals whose home environment is depressing. Fre- 
quently teachers have in their classes girls whose gar- 
ments are tawdry as compared with those of their 
wealthier sisters. It is a serious fact that wounded pride, 
repressed vanity, unsympathetic home life, and loneli- 
ness tend to check mental progress unless the teacher can 
spread over such unfortunate boys and girls some light 
of hope in a friendly, helping attitude. These lacks, un- 
tapped springs of real mental efficiency, are perhaps of 
greater moment in the problem of study than the pres- 
ent complexity of programme can remove. Individual 
differences, however, cannot be disregarded in a secon- 
dary system of education whose purpose the community 
conceives to be to give every boy and girl an opportunity 
to reach the maximum of intellectual realization within 
the powers of each individual. 

The Teacher an Alpine Guide. — It cannot be repeated 
too often that good studying depends largely upon good 
teaching. The latter is determined not simply by the 
technic of presenting subject-matter to a class, but also 
by that intangible quality which is conveniently called 
personality. An investigation a few years ago brought 
to light some interesting facts in this connection. Eight 
hundred and twenty-nine high school pupils stated 
that their best and most helpful teachers were pleasant, 
cheerful, optimistic, enthusiastic, and young. One hun- 
dred and forty-four of these pupils judged their favorite 
teacher as kind, forgiving, and generous. One hundred 
and twelve of them said that the popular teacher was 
never rude, harsh, sarcastic, nor given to the use of ridi- 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 271 

cule. Cheerful, good-natured, happy, jolly, witty, even- 
tempered, and sociable were popular qualities. One hun- 
dred and four of these pupils regarded the favorite 
teacher as patient, considerate, not unreasonably strict. 
Fifty-nine found firmness, decision, businesslike atti- 
tude, and strictness desirable qualities. Doing things 
that helped them most was considered by several pupils 
as essential in an effective and popular teacher. 

The attractiveness and magnetism of the teacher be- 
fore the class will inspire the pupils to work much more 
quickly than an impersonal, haughty, strict attitude, 
which may, indeed, frighten the pupils into learning their 
lessons but will never focus their attention on those 
finer aspects of learning in which the pupil works be- 
cause he loves the teacher and the subject this teacher 
presents. There are teachers whose presence in the 
classroom creates an atmosphere that seems charged 
with the finest suggestion for intellectual achievement. 
In such classes the study problem is greatly minimized. 
The writer has in mind a teacher of geometry. Her 
presence in the classroom is cold, indifferent, formal, for- 
bidding. The whole recitation is a bore to teacher and 
pupils. In the same high school is a teacher of history, 
whose voice, general manner, interest in the subject, 
ingenious presentation of the lesson material, kindly but 
firm adherence to a well-ordered discipline, and, withal, a 
friendly attitude toward every member of the class make 
an atmosphere laden with suggestion for the finest 
mental effort. Boys and girls are quick to respond to 
sincere friendship on the part of the teacher. Super- 
ficial professional attitudism in high school as well as in 
college creates a fixed gulf between teacher and pupil. 

This friendship for the pupils is best revealed in the 



272 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

personal conference. Herein lies the teacher's opportu- 
nity. Conferences, to be sure, take time and strength. 
They are, however, the finest test of a teacher's fitness 
for the work. In many high schools teachers have a for- 
mal office hour which proves very helpful; but the con- 
ference takes on the nature of an informal visit either in 
the school building or in the home. In the course of a 
social conversation the main topic may deal with the 
various ways in which an especially troublesome subject 
can be studied. In this way the pupil is encouraged to 
confide in the teacher. Through this exchange of confi- 
dences many a pupil begins to see the worthwhileness of 
a school career, and whatever difficulties that may appear 
are met with courage and determination. 

Assignments. — Pupils can be greatly helped also by 
the teacher's method of assigning lessons. A fundamen- 
tal principle in this connection consists in the assignment 
growing naturally out of the day's discussion. The study- 
ing of the next ten pages may or may not be inspiring 
or worth while. A discriminating teacher will not 
attempt to cover every page in the text-book. But, if 
in the next ten pages there are some fascinating truths 
which the teacher can attractively advertise in the 
assigning of the new lesson, it is likely that the class 
will be curious enough to look over the teacher's 
" goods" more carefully. The teacher must always be 
a salesman of truth. 

In the next lesson, to change the figure, there may be 
difficult heights to scale. The teacher, knowing the lay 
of the land, will guide the young climbers to the appreci- 
ation and more thorough understanding of the meaning 
of these life facts. It is the teacher's function to deal not 
simply with the steps on the way but to lead the pupils 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 273 

to the altitudes whence the broad panorama of knowledge 
can be seen. The true teacher does not drive but leads. 
Pupils will gladly follow a teacher whose insight and in- 
genuity unfold beauties and possibilities and analogies 
that the untrained mind cannot discover. The next 
day's lesson, therefore, must be attractively announced. 
It should be a natural advance upon to-day's discoveries. 
The teacher must map out the new lesson carefully and 
prepare for it with every pupil in mind. Such prepara- 
tion takes time and talent, but it is just as exhilarating as 
preparing a party for an Alpine climb. An unprepared 
guide means a hazardous and fatal climb; an unpre- 
pared teacher means an unprepared, failing, and dis- 
couraged class. 

For this reason, the time of the assignment is important. 
In many schools the custom is to assign the lesson either 
at the beginning or at the close of the hour. A better 
pedagogical method would be to assign the lesson in the 
midst of a recitation where some point is discussed and a 
new problem arises. In this way the pupil sees the mean- 
ing of the new task. Moreover, the lesson will be at- 
tractive because it challenges his power of discovery. 
Lessons so introduced will be effectively and earnestly 
studied. 

The Study Period. — The increasing emphasis on the 
study period — now notable— indicates that the high 
school recognizes the need of controlling the environment 
and methods of the pupils at work. The time may come 
when teachers will do less class teaching and more " edu- 
cational guidance" during the study period. Perhaps 
it is true, as stated in the Briggs report already referred 
to, that at present there is too much teaching. Sutton 
and Horn believe that a properly arranged daily schedule 



274 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

provides for the alternation of recitation periods and 
study periods. While it is generally understood that 
teachers should prepare for the former, although fre- 
quently they do not, it is not so well recognized that 
teachers should prepare for the latter. 

Management of the Study Period. — These authors 
suggest that in preparing for the study period the 
teacher should have the aim to be accomplished during 
each of these periods clearly conceived. After a recita- 
tion dealing with the development of a new truth the 
pupils might spend their time in studying the same 
topic as treated by the text-book and by the teacher. 
For this reason, the materials to be used should be 
carefully selected. The study period should be de- 
voted to work of real value. Mere study as an exercise 
in discipline is valueless unless in connection with it a 
distinct purpose of objective achievement exists. The 
sifting and marking of the study exercises require sound 
judgment on the part of the teacher, involving not only 
the evaluation of material from the standpoint of ad- 
vancement of subject-matter but also from the standpoint 
of the advancement of the pupils. Several study groups, 
for instance, may not be aiming at the same accomplish- 
ment. What is useful for one group would not be for 
others. 

It is important also that the subject-matter bear 
on some course of study with which the pupil is then 
engaged. Recitation period and study period should 
be interlaced — the one supplying contents and the other 
increasing interest. Again, the teacher should also use 
judgment as to the amount of work assigned. It is ob- 
viously useless to require more than can well be pre- 
pared and yet teachers often have so little conception 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 275 

of what a pupil can do that they assign impossible 
lessons. 

Plans of Supervised Study. — Originality here as else- 
where in school work is desirable. In the East Technical 
High School of Cleveland, O., the study period is distinctly 
social. " No rooms for the seating of pupils by classes were 
provided, but there were about fifty rooms with a seating 
capacity of thirty each, to which pupils have been assigned 
on coming to the school for the first time. This assignment 
is maintained throughout the pupil's course and has a 
neighborhood basis. After a time this serves to promote 
and utilize the 'gang motive'. . . Thus, on entering the 
Technical High School, boys coming from the Columbia 
Grammar School are always assigned to Room 105 and 
thenceforth are known as Mr. Meek's boys. In the same 
way the girls from the Columbia School are assigned an- 
nually to Room 207 and are known as Miss King's girls. 
Two or three schools sending small numbers to the high 
school each year are combined. To preserve democ- 
racy, unlike neighborhoods are fused and it is so arranged 
that about ten or twelve new pupils are added each year. 
In the case of a single school sending large numbers 
yearly sometimes a division is made. Thus the Bolton 
school has two rooms for boys and one for girls to take 
care of the large numbers entering the high school from 
this district." These rooms are for supervised study 
only — not for recitations. 

Various plans have been devised for properly adjusting 
the study period to the recitation hour. In Joliet, 111., 
a two-hour period in algebra, geometry, foreign lan- 
guages, and the sciences has been found effective. An 
extreme method of procedure is in operation in Colum- 
bia, Mo., where the recitation has been dispensed with 



276 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

and students are given various problems to solve by 
means of supervised research during school hours. The 
Newark plan, described in the following chapter, retains 
the recitation but provides for a half-hour study period 
within each recitation hour. In other schools — Dekalb, 
111., being typical of these — the class is divided into 
several groups supervised by competent teachers, who 
oversee the pupils while preparing their lessons. In still 
others provision is made for studying in the assembly- 
room, which is supervised by teachers in turn, there being 
no attempt at specific guidance of an expert nature. 

Difficulties of Supervision. — The proper direction of 
study is claiming the attention of wide-awake principals 
and superintendents. One of the greatest difficulties to 
be overcome is the arrangement of the daily schedule 
so as to allow the proper amount of time for this super- 
vision in an already crowded programme. It is doubt- 
ful whether the study period should be so provided for. 
As will be seen in connection with the conditions of 
study, pupils vary in their efficiency. Whereas study- 
ing may be quite easy to-day, it will be difficult to- 
morrow. Weather, temperature, moods, and physical con- 
dition affect this efficiency. To force the pupil on an off 
day to spend as much time as on a successful day is mani- 
festly unpedagogical. Some educators believe that the 
different subjects should have longer or shorter periods. 

A Feasible Plan. — To give every subject the same 
minimum or maximum time limit is unwise from the 
standpoint of study. If an hour be devoted to mathe- 
matics, a half -hour might well be spent in studying and 
the other half-hour to a simple review and explanation. 
Hour periods in English would enable the teacher to de- 
velop the lesson simply and tersely, and the remainder 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 277 

of the time might well be spent in individual endeavor 
to master some principle or elaborate some problem 
while the teacher is at hand to make suggestions. In 
history map study, arranging tables of contemporaneous 
events, tracing causes of epochal changes, setting the 
stage of some great battle or assembly might well be done 
in the quiet of an hour spent in a room furnished with 
such material as suggests historical thinking and per- 
spectives. Or, if this hour be lengthened for mathe- 
matics, foreign languages, and the sciences, part of this 
period might be devoted to study. 

The exact amount of time within each period for rec- 
itation and for study will be determined by the nature 
of the subject-matter. The value of this arrangement 
lies in the absence of so much desk talk. The real teach- 
ing will be done not en masse but according to each indi- 
vidual's capacity to learn. Any teacher who is well 
prepared and thoroughly acquainted with the subject can 
outline sufficient new material in fifteen or twenty min- 
utes to make profitable the greater part of the recitation 
period being spent in economical study. 

Another advantage of this plan lies in its compara- 
tively easy adoption, without seriously disarranging the 
present schedule. The time required for making shifts 
between classes could be recovered by adding an hour 
to the day's programme. With the partial elimination 
of home study, there is no reason why pupils should not 
spend another hour in the school, where studying can be 
done economically, both as to time and mental assimila- 
tion. The teacher's spare time during unoccupied hours 
might be devoted to the correction of papers. It is 
probable that some of the amount of time now spent by 
pupils in writing papers for the teacher's correction would 



278 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

be greatly lessened under a system of study supervision 
and also that such supervision would greatly reduce the 
number of errors that now are the bugbear of the teach- 
er's work. 

The greatest advantage of this plan is the provision it 
makes for individual differences and individual fluctua- 
tions of mental receptivity. Within the recitation or 
study period the teacher can so arrange the work that no 
pupil is overstrained mentally or physically. The fear 
of not knowing the lesson is reduced if not wholly re- 
moved. The pupil's desire to want to know is greatly 
stimulated. At present the pupil is apt to feel that 
studying is an arbitrary and lifeless pursuit; but within 
a period charged with the suggestive power of many in 
the attitude of mental effort, and realizing the possibility 
of overcoming difficulties that before seemed unsur- 
mountable, the pupil will be constrained to respond to 
the utmost. 

Summary of Plans for Supervised Study. — The grow- 
ing interest of educators in the supervision of study is 
evinced in the various plans already discussed and in 
several other schemes, a list of which is herewith given. 

i. The Assembly or Study Hall. — Usually this type 
does not provide for real supervision of the individual 
student while he studies, but in many schools this is all 
that is meant by supervised study. 

2. The Study Coach. — Illustrations of this plan are 
Hillsdale and Jackson, Mich., and the high school in 
Newark, 0. Delinquent and indifferent children are 
referred to this coach for special instruction. 

3. The Detroit Plan of Review Groups. — Delinquents 
in algebra and in Latin are formed into special groups for 
review work together with the regular advanced work. 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 279 

4. Newark Plan. — Already discussed and more fully 
explained in the next chapter. 

5. The Joliet Plan. — Already discussed. 

6. Supervised Home-Study Plan. — Proposed by Wm. 
C. Reavis. Pupils are expected to have a study schedule 
for home or school study. The programme or study 
card contains directions how to study. 

7. Columbia Plan. — Already discussed. 

8. DeKalb Plan. — One study period in each subject a 
week. 

9. Alameda Plan. — No home study at all but in- 
stead periods for each subject in the regular school 
programme. 

10. East Cleveland Plan. — Already discussed. 

n. New York Plan. — One fourth of the pupil's lesson 
must be supervised. 

12. Batavia Plan. 

13. Pueblo Plan. 

14. Conference Plans. 

In order to ascertain just what the high schools are 
doing in the way of supervising study the writer sent out 
a brief questionnaire to 976 high schools in thirty- three 
States. At present 517 replies have been received from 
these thirty- three States. The following questions were 
asked : 

1. Have you supervised study in your school? 

2. How long have you had supervised study? 

3. Please state which of the following methods of 
study supervision you use: 

(a) A period in assembly-room presided over by teach- 
ers in turn. 

(b) A study period for each subject supervised by the 
teacher of that subject. 



280 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



(c) Part of recitation period devoted to supervised 
study. 

(d) The Cleveland plan of special neighborhood rooms. 

(e) Personal conference at stated hours (s) ... or by 
appointment (a). 

(/*) Any plan different from the above. 

In reply to the first question 383 answered "Yes," 
60 "No," 37 " Partly," and 37 gave no answer. 

Replies to the second question range all the way from 
" Three months" to "Always." From the replies it 
seems that supervised study in the modern sense of the 
term has not been in use very long in most schools. 

The following tables furnish additional data. Table I 
shows the relation between the last five replies and the 
first two. From this table one may see that there is not 
a consistent notion of supervised study throughout the 
replies : 

TABLE I 



Number out of 517 
giving answers as 
below 


No. answering 
"Yes," giving 
replies as be- 
low, out of 383 


No. answering 
"No," giving 
replies as be- 
low, out of 60 


No. answering 
"Partly," giv- 
ing replies as 
below, out of 37 


No. answering 
blank, giving 
replies as be- 
low, out of 37 


Number 


Per 
cent 


Num- 
ber 


Per cent 


Num- 
ber 


Per cent 


Num- 
ber 


Per cent 


Num- 
ber 


Per cent 


A 424 
B 74 
C 143 
E: 

Stated 229 
Appt'd 247 
Both 117 


82 

14 
28 

44 
48 

23 


327 

69 

109 

191 

195 
100 


85.6 

18. 

25.8 

49-8 

50.9 
27.9 


34 

I 

12 

14 

22 

6 


56.6 
.6 
20. 

2-3 

3-6 
. 1 


21 

I 

12 

9 
IO 

4 


56.4 

■3 

32.4 

24-3 
27. 
10. 7 


26 

I 

7 

5 
6 

5 


70. 

•3 
18.9 

13-5 
l6. 2 

13-5 



In the third column, where 60 reply that they have no 
supervised study, 12 answer that they have supervised 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 



281 



study within the recitation period. The two replies are 
self-contradictory. 

The replies show also that 79 have only the assembly 
hall for so-called supervised study. Two have only (6), 
5 have only (c), 7 have only the stated conference hour, 
9 have only conferences by appointment, and 8 provide 
for conferences both statedly and occasionally. 

Table II shows the various combinations employed by 
high schools in dealing with this problem. The letters 
refer to the questions cited above. 



TABLE II 



Number having only the combinations as indicated 


ab 


7 


abc 


2 


ac 


17 


abs 


.... 4 


as 


65 


aba 


.... 10 


aa 


72 


abe — both 


7 


ae — both . 


57 










acs 


... .28 


be 

bs 


1 

2 


aca 

ace — both 


25 

■■■■33 


ba 

be — both . 


2 

1 


bes 

bca 


.... 3 
1 


cs 


4 


abes 


2 


ca 


3 


abca 


.... 4 


ce — both . 


2 


abce — both ' . 


....16 



It will be observed that the largest number have the 
assembly hall and the occasional conference. Next 
come the assembly hall and both kinds of conference 
hours. At first glance it seems promising that 33 high 
schools include a modification of the Newark plan in their 
supervision of study, but several of these 33 mean sim- 



282 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ply a more extended treatment of the assignment. The 
last three groups are more promising. 

This brief summary of the investigation does not pre- 
tend to offer an adequate account of conditions as they 
obtain in the high schools. It merely hints at what 
seems to exist in a fairly well distributed number of 
schools. Until a careful investigation into the actual 
results in the classroom has been made, it is impossible 
to say definitely what the high schools are doing in the 
way of effective study supervision. It seems safe to 
conclude from this brief survey that at present there is 
very little supervised study provided for in our secon- 
dary schools. It remains to examine into the technic of 
such supervision as does exist and into the recorded re- 
sults of supervised study. 

How to Use Books. — So far as the methods of study 
are concerned, the chief disadvantage in the use of free 
texts lies in the pupil's inability to mark the books either 
by underscoring or marginal notation. In some schools 
the pupils are allowed to mark the books with a very 
light pencil, the markings being erased by the pupils at 
the end of the term. A course in such a use of books 
for study purposes would be a distinct aid to good study- 
ing. The supplementing of the text-book by inserted 
leaves, pictures, clippings, marginal citations, outlines 
either in the text itself or on a page pasted in the book — 
these are some of the devices that the high school pupil 
should be taught. 

Reference books, supplemental and cultural readings 
are essential for that broad background which marks the 
sweep and definiteness of successful learning. The mere 
assignment of readings is insufficient. Pupils must be 
taught how to read. A wider view-point is obtained by 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 283 

purposeful reading. For this reason assignments in these 
" extra" books should be definite and pointed as to topic, 
chapter, and page. The teacher, moreover, should require 
every pupil to note in detail the sources of information 
gleaned from outside reading. This practice will be of 
great value to them in college or in later professional 
life and it will train them also in accuracy of informa- 
tion. 

The teacher will make these readings effective if she 
calls attention to the value of the author's contribution. 
The beauty of the contents, the circumstances of the 
composition, and items of biographical interest will en- 
hance the pupil's interest in this outside reading. In 
this day of rapid revision of school literature pupils 
should be impressed with the need of such revision, with 
the fact that information limited to one text-book is apt 
to be inaccurate or out of date. For this reason the 
comparison of text-books is helpful. The noting of dif- 
ferent points of view on a problem will train the high 
school pupil to compare and to judge. In this way he 
will be trained in discerning criticism at a time when he 
is apt to be over credulous. 

The Function of Books in the Technic of Study. — 
The kinds of books used by the pupil are text, reference, 
supplemental, and cultural books. Bagley divides text- 
books as follows: readers, manuals, or handbooks such as 
arithmetic and grammar texts which provide a minimum 
of facts and principles with a maximum of exercises or 
problems to be worked out by the pupils ; and text-books 
proper, such as geographies, histories, and physiologies 
in which the chief aim is the logical and systematic set- 
ting forth of facts and principles. Inasmuch as the 
pupil handles text-books more frequently than other 



284 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

kinds of books, the high school should carefully instruct 
him in the use of these tools. Pupils have too little re- 
gard for their texts. They mishandle them in various 
ways, not always intentionally, however. Like many 
older people, they do not know how to open new books. 
Librarians are agreed that books should be opened in the 
following manner: place the new book, back down and 
the two covers flat, on the desk or table, then spread out 
half a dozen pages at a time alternating, left and right, 
pressing them down on the covers, running the fingers 
along the " hinge" of the book; continue this until the 
book lies open. 

Conditions of Effective Studying.— Readers of biog- 
raphy and autobiography may be impressed with the 
fact that extraordinary intellectual feats have been per- 
formed by men and women in what at first seems to have 
been unpropitious circumstances. In some instances the 
conditions appeared wholly inadequate for fine mental 
work. While this is true one finds that there were also 
certain conditions in these same cases that made possi- 
ble brilliant authorship and scientific victories. It also 
is true that if the conditions had been more favorable 
many of these intellectual producers might have lived 
longer and produced a larger number of things worth 
while for mankind. It is important that the high 
school recognize certain conditions that will greatly ad- 
vance the pupil's efficiency. 

Incentives. — Gedinhagen makes the following divi- 
sion of incentives, the artificial and the natural. Under 
the artificial incentives he places prizes, medals, and 
class honors; privileges, holidays, and honor seats; im- 
munities and exemptions from certain tasks. Under the 
natural incentives he includes desire for good standing, 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 285 

desire for approbation, desire for knowledge, desire for 
efficiency, desire for self-control and for future good, 
and a sense of honor, right, and duty. It will not be 
doubted that effective studying requires constant incen- 
tives of some sort. The way of learning is often steep 
and discouraging even in high school and can be made 
possible only by some all-powerful motive in the form 
of a dominant incentive supplied in part by the teacher. 
The incentives referred to may or may not have intrin- 
sic worth apart from their power to function as stimuli 
for the best effort. Within their well-defined limits, 
however, they can be used by the school as powerful 
means of inspiring the pupils to be faithful to their 
tasks. Biography refers to other incentives which per- 
haps are less evident in the high school. Grief and 
disappointment, sickness, poverty, romance, and past 
experience — all count significantly in the pupil's school 
life. If the teacher could ascertain some of these usually 
concealed conditions they could be made forceful agen- 
cies in a concentrated and ambitious life of study. Here 
as throughout his or her career the teacher must know 
the pupil as a friend. The appeal to the individual is 
possible only when we know his individual problems. 

The Study Room. — Again we find that masterpieces 
have been evolved in dismal, barren, ugly huts and that 
the splendors of fabulous wealth may strangle intellectual 
ardor. But this is no reason for neglecting the care of the 
young pupil's workshop. It is important that the pupil 
be surrounded with such influences as will bring forth his 
noblest and most vigorous self. Investigations in the 
field of school hygiene are at present confined to the 
structure and arrangement of school buildings and the 
life of the pupils in these buildings. It is necessary, how- 



286 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ever, that these investigations extend so as to include the 
life of the pupil everywhere. The pupil's room, whether 
in school or at home, should be intelligently supervised. 

Competent investigators have found that for effective 
day illumination the pupil's study table should be near 
the window and should be so placed that the light falls 
over his left shoulder. If the window faces a busy street 
the lower part should be translucent. The light should 
always be subdued, for brilliant sunshine will eventu- 
ally weaken the strongest eyes. Usually shades of 
medium green or yellow are sufficient for the proper 
dilution of light. In schoolrooms Shaw suggests that 
light-green tints are to be preferred for the walls. Red 
and other deep tones should be avoided. In the school- 
room as well as at home the light thus diluted by windows 
and walls should still be strong enough to enable the 
pupil to read diamond type sixteen inches from the eyes. 
Care should be taken to prevent any reflection from the 
blackboards or surfaces of the desks. The well-prepared 
teacher will know how the light falls from every angle 
and every seat in the room. 

Of equal importance is the temperature of the room. 
Perhaps most young people are more apt to have their 
rooms too warm than too cold. For general work 65 ° to 
68° is ample. Rooms that are too warm produce drow- 
siness, which, of course, destroys concentration. Where 
stoves are used the atmosphere will be heavy unless ven- 
tilation provides for continually renewed air. If cir- 
cumstances do not allow a scientific ventilation system, 
the next best device is to have the windows open about 
nine inches from the top. In a recent comparison be- 
tween pupils in a closed-window schoolroom and those 
in an opened-window room in Philadelphia it was found 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 287 

that the class in the latter surpassed the former in almost 
every test. The temperature of the closed room averaged 
68°, while in the open room the temperature was 47 . 

It may be difficult to provide the foregoing conditions 
in many homes. Doubtless a tactful principal or teacher 
can create a sentiment in favor of these conditions. As 
long as home study continues to occupy the place it does, 
it is necessary that the high school attempt some super- 
vision of the pupil's room conditions at home. Legisla- 
tion now provides for adequate plumbing conditions. 
Pure-food laws protect us against old and unhealthful 
food. Milk and dairy products are inspected. It is 
equally important that the habitat of the pupil be in- 
spected so as to conserve those conditions that will 
make him mentally efficient. To do this at present is 
obviously delicate. But the school authorities as ser- 
vants of society should have the right to insist on such 
conditions as economize the pupil's time and strength. 
The school board can well add this to its other duties. 
In the meantime, frequent references to these hygienic 
needs can be made at the school assembly or by each 
teacher during the recitation while she is attending to 
similar conditions in the classroom. Where the school at 
present cannot legally control it can at least suggest and 
practise its own suggestions. 

The Amount of Time for Sleep. — The following table 
by Doctor Dukes indicates the amount of sleep pupils 
at different ages require: 

No. of Hours 
Age Sleep Required 

12-14 IO}£ 

14-16 IO 

16—18 g% 

18-19 9 



288 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Frequent relaxation is vital during the adolescent period. 
Sound sleep and plenty of it furnishes this relaxa- 
tion. High school authorities should insist on this im- 
portant condition of good studying. Nervous troubles 
from various causes are best cured by the rest and relaxa- 
tion obtained in this way. Not infrequently high school 
pupils become nervously depleted from overwork. Timid 
but conscientious pupils often try to meet high standards 
of scholarship and in the attempt lose needful relaxation. 
The appalling amount of incipient tuberculosis among 
young people is alarming investigators in some of our 
larger school systems. The causes, to be sure, are not 
wholly within the field of overstudy and consequent in- 
sufficiency of sleep; but enough of them are to make it 
necessary for the high school to warn and guard its pupils 
against such pastimes and overindulgence in late study- 
ing as will shorten the amount of sleep necessary for a 
well-toned and keen mentality and vigorous physical 
condition. 

The General Condition of Health.- — Good mental effort 
depends on the conservation of physical health. Good 
health, in turn depends, upon a large intake of energy and 
a large outgo of energy. Dearborn says: "The balance 
of enjoyment in suitable hard work has its primary 
ground certainly in good health, viewed especially as 
normal metabolism with normal assimilation and dis- 
similation — good nutrition balancing good excretion." 
High school boys and girls should be in the pink of 
condition. Euphoria should mark the individuality of 
these future citizens whose sane optimism will prove 
invaluable to the State. Some one has said that the 
personal devil is worry. When one sees the gloom of 
anxiety settling upon the faces of high school pupils 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 289 

it is unreasonable to expect the finest-toned mental 
effort. Between the two, mental health, perhaps, re- 
quires more attention than physical. The former is 
more insidious in its encroachments, its symptoms are 
less generally understood, and its causes are deemed 
trivial or no causes at all. Here is one of the great 
functions of the high school — to protect the mental 
health of its members. 

That school authorities are mindful of this need is 
assured in the attention given to proper rest rooms and 
to the lunch hour and the cafeterias. In Santa Monica, 
Cal., the principal of the high school has placed the 
limit for high school lunches at twenty cents. The 
rule was made because of the tendency to overeat, 
which caused dulness and lassitude on the part of the 
pupils and in this way interfered with good work. 
In Cleveland, O., the medical inspector of the schools 
has provided for penny lunches to counteract the habit 
of buying cheap and harmful penny candy. The time of 
eating is just as important as the kind of eating. The 
length of the lunch hour in many schools is all too short. 
Whipple suggests that it should be at least two hours. 

The foregoing conditions as well as others that cannot 
be discussed are essential to the best efforts among the 
population of the high school. Good studying depends 
very largely on these conditions. Attention to them 
should be provided for in all the curriculums of the high 
school. Much of our " curriculum thinking" would be 
clearer and more effective if the school studied not sim- 
ply the social efficiency of the pupils, through well- 
arranged programmes and well-developed technic of 
teaching, but studied as well the technic of study. The 
community rightly expects that in the high school citi- 



290 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

zens will be developed who can readily adjust themselves 
to any situation. They must acquire this intellectual 
habit through a proper direction of the technic of study. 

Hindrances to Effective Studying. — There is space 
here to select only two or three of the hindrances that 
are most common. Poor health and fatigue are gener- 
ally recognized as hindrances. Closely connected with 
fatigue but frequently quite different in its nature is 

Laziness. — The lazy pupil is usually in bad standing 
with the school authorities. H. Addington Bruce de- 
scribes laziness as follows: "There is a perpetual waste 
of time, dawdling, loitering, gossiping, a seeming passion 
for the ways of slothful ease and aversion from sustained 
endeavor." No doubt all of us, if honest, would confess 
that we agree with Agnes Repplier: "I cannot sympa- 
thize with the noble theory that every man and woman 
should do their share of the world's work. I would 
gladly shirk my own if I could." The lazy person, 
whether in school or in the world, is so generally dis- 
counted that we must look into some phases of this 
problem as it is related to the high school pupil's atti- 
tude toward studying. 

The chief cause of laziness is infirmity of the will. Lazi- 
ness may be associated with a debilitated condition of the 
nervous system, an asthenic condition accompanied by 
slow heart-beat, slow arterial pressure, and poor circu- 
lation. The consequence, says Ribot, is that the brain 
shows not so much an indisposition as a real incapacity 
for concentrating attention and soon, owing to the fact 
that its nourishment is at the vanishing-point, becomes 
exhausted. Laziness among very young school children 
is caused very largely by adenoids or abnormal tissue 
growths in the cavity back of the nose. 

Another cause is far-sightedness. Any bodily defect 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 291 

tending to impose excessive strain on the nervous system 
tends to produce an asthenic condition with accompany- 
ing apathy and indolence and may lead to habitual un- 
conscious idleness. Doctor Maurice de Fleury looks 
upon lazy people as neuropaths afflicted with malfunc- 
tioning of the brain. "The longer a man has been an 
idler the more deeply rooted, of course, will be his sub- 
conscious conviction that exertion is impossible to him; 
but once this conviction is broken down he will find 
that he can work and to good purpose." 

Laziness may be due, also, to reaction from some round 
of pleasure the day before. It may be caused by over- 
eating. A normal lack of interest in a subject may mani- 
fest itself as laziness. Pupils deficient in one subject may 
be even brilliant in other classes. Because inferior in 
mathematics a pupil may be judged a shirk and conse- 
quently be marked low. The facts may be, however, 
that the pupil has no natural aptitude for this subject 
and applies himself only half-heartedly, with the result- 
ing stigma of being called lazy in mathematics. Mani- 
festly, care should be taken in the use of this term. 

Again, the pupil's room conditions may be a direct 
cause of his laziness. Overheated or poorly ventilated 
rooms are unsuitable for keen mental effort. Failure to 
keep the room clean may cause sluggish mental work. 
Rooms overfurnished, stuffy with the typical parapher- 
nalia of modern acolytes of wisdom — veritable deposi- 
tories of the spoils of barbarous conflicts and indulgences 
— weary the nerves and cause distractions. 

Many pupils prefer to lounge when they study. 
Lying back in an easy chair makes note taking difficult 
and also undesirable. While indulging in the ease of this 
posture of relaxation the pupil cultivates a lazy attitude 
toward his work. One sees frequently in the classroom 



292 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

pupils sitting in a slovenly, indifferent posture. The 
pupil does not have the proper setting for his work. His 
whole attitude suggests to him indifference and indolence. 
Teachers should never permit such conditions in the 
classroom. Pupils should be warned against becoming 
round-shouldered, hollow-chested, and low-spirited. Just 
as the soldier must obey the command, "Attention," by 
assuming a posture that signifies alert readiness for 
action, so the pupil while at work must be ready for 
mental action by assuming postures that help him to 
concentrate upon his lessons. 

Mind-Wandering. — The prevailing defect of mind- 
wandering is another phase of the pupil's lack of alertness. 
Distractions in the form of memories, plans for social 
affairs, noises, diverting activities in the street or in the 
room, poor light, bad ventilation, small type, obscure 
meanings in the assignment, general indifference toward 
the subject — all of these or any one of these may cause 
mind- wandering. It may become chronic and well-nigh 
incurable. Stern discipline controlled in the supervised 
study period will aid in the curing of it. The method 
of discipline, however, must be determined by the nature 
of the case. 

The Social Appeal of the High School Through Study. 
— Together with the searching investigation of the high 
school programme of studies and the most efficient ad- 
ministration and teaching of these subjects, the high 
school expert must provide for an adequate supervision of 
the pupil's methods of work. This field, unfortunately, 
has been neglected in the past. Apparently it mattered 
very little how pupils studied. If they knew their les- 
sons no questions were asked. If they came unprepared 
demerits and frowns and various penalties were the re- 
sult. With the enlargement of experiments in the field 



THE DIRECTION OF STUDY 293 

of educational psychology the mental habits of all who 
study are receiving careful and scientific attention. The 
how of study is coming to be just as important as the 
what of study. It is not unlikely that as progress is 
made in the understanding of how the brain functions 
the contents of the school programme will undergo 
a thorough revision. In the various differentiated high 
school curriculums a large place should be given not only 
to the supervision of study, but there should be a course 
devoted to this important phase of education. We need 
teachers of study as much as we need teachers of English. 
In normal schools and schools of education the technic 
of study deserves as much emphasis as the technic of 
teaching. It is gratifying to note that a few normal 
schools and universities are already making this em- 
phasis. 

The pupil is in school because society must have 
trained citizenship. But mere knowledge of a pre- 
scribed amount of subject-matter is insufficient. The 
future citizen must know how to use his mental powers 
economically. He will be called upon to make sudden 
and critical adjustments. Much of his success will de- 
pend on perspicuity, the ability to analyze and synthe- 
size new situations and facts. A controlled mental life is 
the indispensable medium through which society will 
derive benefit from its educated sons and daughters. 
Mere learning may make a man mad. Learning, together 
with a knowledge of how it was acquired and how in a 
similar way other facts can be assimilated — this surely 
is the heart of wisdom. Civic problems, industrial diffi- 
culties, professional policies, and personal adjustments 
demand experts who can save time, strength, and money 
by means of mental skill. 

In the high school every boy and girl, whether they 



294 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ever enter college or not, should receive mental gui- 
dance adequate to make their careers more quickly suc- 
cessful and more permanently effective. Not only this. 
At present many boys and girls of adolescent age fall 
by the wayside. It is a tragic mistake to lay all the 
blame for this condition on weak mentality or a dis- 
ordered economic state. Many of these young people 
leave high school for pecuniary reasons. But there are 
numbers who leave because of discouragement, neglect, 
timidity — in a word, because they failed to meet class- 
room requirement and because no effective attempt was 
made to guide them into an encouraging use of their 
mental powers. Here is a great waste of intellectual 
equipment that society ought to have at its disposal. 

Society must require of its high schools and of all edu- 
cational institutions the fitting of every individual to the 
maximum of his mental capacity. Anything less than this 
means waste of money, of time, of life itself. If the host 
of children and young people in American schools to-day 
could be taught how to study, how to use their intellects, 
how to master quickly and with skill all of those prob- 
lems which at present occupy so much time in the school 
year it would be possible to give each boy and girl a real 
vocational preparation and send them forth ready for 
effective service at a time when large numbers are now 
battling with new conditions in the first year of the high 
school. In fact, the essence of vocational preparation 
will be this power to use the mind not only in a specific 
field of service but in allied fields or in the community 
at large. To accomplish this, programmes of study and 
school administration must be organized around the all- 
essential problem of the technic of study. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE SOCIAL VALUE OF SCHOOL STUDY VERSUS HOME 

STUDY 

William Wiener, Ph.B. 

PRINCIPAL OF CENTRAL COMMERCIAL AND MANUAL TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL, 
NEWARK, N. J. 

Home Study Reform Needed. — School should be but 
an extension of the ideal home. As such it should take 
into consideration the physical as wel as the mental wel- 
fare of the child. It should promote, control, and guide, 
as would the considerate parent, every activity and effort, 
so that nerve energy is properly directed toward husband- 
ing intellectual power and manual effort for the crises 
that in the child's future experiences demand efficiency. 
Children, as spontaneous critics of customs and methods, 
intuitively discover in them sometimes unnoticed foibles 
and weaknesses. What child, though it is willing to 
learn, does not feel the tyranny of the school which forces 
it after hours to devote unlimited time to extra study 
work on lessons, often without apparent compensation? 
It is time, then, that we awaken to the fact that the 
school has not been doing all it could to make itself home- 
like. No parent would knowingly allow his children to 
be tortured by long hours of home study if he saw a way 
out of this "blind thought alley" which is robbing the 
children of the present and future generations of their 

295 



296 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

heritage of health and right to other kinds of home 
associations. 

Traditional Methods of Home Study. — Traditional 
methods, college requirements, inflexible syllabi, and 
courses of study not based upon the reasonable expendi- 
ture of physical and mental powers of secondary school 
children have been largely responsible in continuing this 
inhumane abuse of long study periods outside of school 
hours. The high schools have not as yet determined 
for themselves, independent of the college-requirement 
goal, the amount of mental and physical wear and tear 
the average pupil can, without harm and strain to him- 
self, stand. When this limit is fixed, one can depend 
upon it that physical and intellectual life will be con- 
served and prolonged for the universal benefit. A way 
to find this limit is suggested by the method of home- 
study reform carried on at the Central Commercial and 
Manual Training High School of Newark, N. J. We 
hope to be able to decide in the course of our experi- 
ence and to fix definitely through our home-study reform 
method the amount of work with the minimum home 
study a child can, under normal conditions, accomplish. 
It is possible that an attempt may be made later to learn 
through experiment what can be accomplished if all the 
work of the school be done at the school. As the child 
becomes accustomed to our present method he requires 
less looking after and is more able to stand alone and 
effectively direct his efforts through his own intelligence. 
In fact, the real test which this method has thus far met 
is the added ability of the child to do or to accomplish 
set tasks without waste of effort. 

It is a principle of economic consideration for commer- 
cial, manufacturing, and even theoretical processes to 



SCHOOL STUDY VERSUS HOME STUDY 297 

have the efficiency factor in them always at its maximum. 
To secure such a condition, it has been found necessary 
to institute experimental research along commercial, 
manufacturing, and theoretical lines. 

But education, because of its theoretical and more or 
less intangible character, has conservatively withstood 
many of the suggested "efficiency propositions," having 
been self-satisfied with the limited efficiency results 
obtained. It is hoped that it will become the future gen- 
eral educational policy to be on the alert for that which 
will mean progress and efficiency. 

Efficiency and Humanity in School Policy. — With effi- 
ciency and humanity in school policy as its guide, the 
Newark home-study reform plan marks a radical depar- 
ture from traditional methods, since it makes the general 
welfare of the child absolutely the all-important issue and 
influence in the school curriculum. The most important 
asset of any community is the child. When the fullest 
development of this asset is not obtained there is, there- 
fore, unnecessary waste of most precious material. 

Conference Period for Home Study. — As the school is 
the educational workshop, generally speaking, it should 
be the place where the work of the school is done. It is 
a fact that many children do not have the proper envi- 
ronment for home study. By this arrangement fitting 
and inspiring environment for study is offered under the 
guidance of the "special-subject" teachers. Besides, it 
is known that under certain conditions it is a physical 
impossibility to do all the school tasks at the school; but 
it has been clearly demonstrated in Newark that the 
period of home study has been materially reduced in 
amount for the average pupil and altogether eliminated 
for the more brilliant scholars. 



298 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Methods and Division of the School Day. — The 

method involves a novel distribution of the school time 
among the different subjects treated in the curriculum. 
It differs during these periods from the usual system of 
time division by the fact that each subject is offered to 
the pupil under the best possible condition. This 
method gives the opportunity for judiciously directed 
study by the teacher of his subject in the atmosphere of 
the subject. The consequent psychological advantages 
are evident. The day's work begins at 8.30 with a five- 
minute written exercise in spelling. Then follow the 
morning exercises, and at 9 A. M. begin the daily recita- 
tions, with five-minute intervals bek^een recitations. 
The recitation periods were formerly, under the ideal 
working of the plan, a full hour in length and only five 
in number. Now, because of the increased number of 
pupils, there are six periods, each fifty minutes in length. 
They are divided into approximately two equal parts. 
The first portion consists of the usual type of formal 
recitation, while the second is a study conference period 
with the teacher of the subject. The teacher of a sub- 
ject is present with his pupils, ready to aid by thought- 
producing suggestions. In the short study conference 
period, preceding which the recitation sets the " swing 
of the subject" in the pupils' minds, the student is able, 
because of a ready subject attitude, to use his intellectual 
powers promptly and economically. This simple plan 
often is an influence emancipating the pupil from home 
study, or a factor reducing to a minimum the time spent 
on the home work by the ambitious pupil. An addi- 
tional hour after school may voluntarily be devoted to 
conference and conference study with the teachers, as 
these teachers are in their respective classrooms ready 
for such conference study. 



SCHOOL STUDY VERSUS HOME STUDY 299 

"What a school is does not require definition. The 
teacher is the important factor of the school. The 
modern teacher has too often, by force of tradition and 
method, become a mere automatic recitation-receiving 
device and a machine lesson-assigning apparatus. This 
implies that lessons are assigned to school attendants; 
but less than fifty per cent of that number, as teachers 
well know, do the unreasonable amount of home study 
required of them; the other fifty per cent 'kill time' at 
school under the old system. By the new plan a value 
is placed by the child on every school minute. Each 
moment spent in school on work, under the ideal condi- 
tions offered, releases the pupil from burdensome, ener- 
vating home study. Hence the appreciation of the 
value of time." 1 

Eight-Hour Day in School Work. — "The municipality, 
the State, and the United States have established eight 
hours as the legal day for manual workers. I do not 
think it right nor even humane that educators should 
work young boys and girls five or six hours in school and 
then set tasks that take many hours at home. If the 
common eight-hour law applies to the adult man for 
manual labor, I cannot comprehend why it should not 
be unhesitatingly enforced in school work in favor of the 
growing school child who has not reached his maturity, 
since mental labor is more trying and enervating. Treat 
your children fairly." 

"Under present conditions of lesson assignment the 
conscientious children come from play to the evening 
meal, hurriedly swallow that, and then work at books un- 
til bedtime. In this way not only do they menace their 
health, but they lose the association with parents and 

1 Paragraphs quoted are taken from an article by the author, "Home- 
Study Reform," in School Review, Oct., 191 2. 



300 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the necessary appreciation of family relations and inter- 
ests. To this is, in my judgment, partly to be attributed 
the children's rampant disrespect for parents and elders, 
who cannot understand or know their offspring because 
of lack of association. Further, I believe that the pres- 
ent undercurrent of immorality in the lives of boys and 
girls is, in part, due to this loss of parental association 
and the lack of the moral influence of the family. Home 
study is a frequent excuse for children to remain away 
from church on Sunday and from church functions which 
occur during the week. In the evenings, too, the child is 
of necessity debarred from attendance at lectures, at con- 
certs, or at the theatre. Thus it is evident that the 
present methods, to a certain extent, are unhygienic and 
deprive the child of such moral, cultural, and religious 
influences as would do much to educate him in the 
highest sense." 

Our system encourages the appreciation of relative 
values in the child. He early learns through experience 
that time spent in school on the assigned task at the 
proper moment means, perhaps, no home study or, at 
most, very little of it. It is to be noted that there is 
an evident lack of fatigue, though the school hours are 
long, from half past eight to three, with the extra period 
from three to four. There is no diminution of interest 
or weariness noticeable before the noon period or before 
the afternoon close of school. There is evident an alert- 
ness and brightness of the eye indicative of good atten- 
tion and scholarship. 

Humanizing Effect on Teachers. — "Such a system as 
that which we employ has the wonderful effect of human- 
izing the teachers by bringing them into that intimate 
association with the pupil thought and idea. The con- 



SCHOOL STUDY VERSUS HOME STUDY 301 

sequence is that the teacher's sympathetic consideration, 
generous conception, and sincere appreciation of the dif- 
ficulties of the scholar result in inspiring refined methods 
of teaching the various lessons. Hence the outcome has 
been better, more ideal, and more humane teaching than 
has obtained under the usual academic plan of knowl- 
edge dissemination." 

Different Type of Recitation Required. — The new plan 
requires an absolute remodelling and replanning of the 
old type of recitation. It means, for the pupils' benefit, 
sacrifice of self on the part of the teacher. Through the 
evolution of the tyrannical pedagogue into the new 
teacher, that part of the teacher that is of the universal 
good grows and encourages the universal goodness of the 
child to unfold itself. The pessimistic teacher who fails 
to reconcile the highest ideals of progress to familiar tra- 
ditional conditions becomes his own destructive toxin. 

"One of the chief difficulties that children meet in their 
study tasks is the inability to distinguish for themselves, 
through their own observation, those trying portions in 
their tasks which judicious and immediate elucidation on 
the part of the teacher would render possible of correct 
conception. The new plan of study-recitation teaches 
and inculcates introspection in the child, so that he early 
learns to determine for himself his power to perceive 
difficult points and to fix upon correct methods for their 
solution through proper reasoning and under proper 
guidance over initial difficulties. He thus obtains for 
himself organized lesson conceptions instead of poorly 
worked study tasks." 

Initiative of Child Inspired to Greater Activity. — ■ 
It is an axiom that children like to be doing things. 
The Froebel kindergarten methods and the Montessori 



302 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

method are applications of the above dictum. Teach 
the child a "how" and it becomes happy through the 
presence in itself of the power to do tasks which require 
intellectual or manual effort, or both. By the method 
advocated here the natural initiative of the child has been 
inspired to greater activity, because he begins to exercise 
a vivid imagination, to make use of concrete conceptions, 
and to become a creator of problem solutions and thought 
expressions, instead of an imitator of the teacher as un- 
der the traditional method. The child, therefore, uses 
its energy to the fullest extent. 

Concentration. — The power of concentration which 
has through this method been acquired by the pupils 
of the school is evident to all observers. The value of 
the exercise of concentration in young people cannot 
be overestimated. This leads here to the saving of 
much time from dissipation of mental energy and thus 
sanctions the new plan as a time-saving aid in mental 
effort. 

Study Habits. — Correct study habits are formed by a 
careful observation of the suggested recitation-confer- 
ence plan. Intellectual courage is inspired. With this 
come intellectual manliness, independence, self-reliance, 
and a desire to penetrate, because of the adventure-loving 
bent of youth, even the realms of the intellectual un- 
known for the pleasures of intellectual surprises. 

Satisfied, repaid effort removes the necessity for disci- 
pline to such an extent that in the school school spirit 
and loyalty rise to a very high point. The school is sim- 
ilar to a corporation organized on the co-operative plan. 
Into this corporation each student stockholder puts as 
capital his best efforts and energies and receives as a re- 
turn such high dividends on the investment that he 






SCHOOL STUDY VERSUS HOME STUDY 303 

returns from year to year bent upon further develop- 
ment and concerned for the welfare of all and self 
in proper, personal activities. Observe our noon recess, 
during which for more than a year the whole school of 
over one thousand five hundred pupils, both in the lunch 
room and on the roof playground, looks after its own wel- 
fare, not through student committees, not through proc- 
tors, but through that loyal school spirit and personal 
pride which come from the inspiration of value received 
for effort expended in the classroom. It is thought that 
this organized school study is the chief cause. 

Promotions. — Promotions under this system may be a 
matter of interest to all. Last term, for example — the 
figures for that period are given as showing the latest 
experiences with our plan — there were over eighty-five 
per cent of promotions in all subjects. Had it not been 
for the illness and change of several teachers in the same 
department of work, the record of promotion would 
have been over ninety per cent. This demonstrates 
clearly (if our judgment of the value of this plan is cor- 
rect), despite the high standards for promotion which 
were set, the especial efficiency of the plan, on the basis 
of economic school administration, over the old plan of 
school keeping. 

Increase in Enrolment. — In our school, despite the 
handicap of its being a new school with incomplete equip- 
ment in every one of its many departments, the net reg- 
istration left at the close of the first term was about 
eighty-two and nine tenths per cent of the original total 
term enrolment. At the close of the second half-year 
the figure reached eighty-nine and two tenths per cent 
of the total enrolment. There is reason to believe 
that at the end of the third half-year the per cent of 



304 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



pupils will vary between ninety-two per cent and ninety- 
five per cent of the original total enrolment. This 
record in a large city high school is due in largest mea- 
sure, in the opinion of those in position to judge, to tl 
same method of conference study. 

Educational mortality is one of the most serious con- 
ditions met in the life of the high school. Large num- 
bers of pupils begin high school careers. Many of thes 
educationally perish in the struggle for a certificate 
of graduation. Numerous reasons may be offered for 
this. Among them is the great difference in character 
between high school and grade work. The children are 
bewildered and discouraged by the new environment, 
with its strange departmental methods, departments 
indifference, and lack of personal sympathy as to the 
child's ability to handle himself in his secondary schoc 
studies under these peculiar circumstances. By the re( 
tation-conference plan the student is, very early in his 
school career, enabled to get his proper poise in this ne^ 
environment. 

Increase in Amount of Work. — Now that teachers an 
becoming more accustomed to the new plan, we note 
that under it the English department finds that it is abl( 
to complete fifty per cent more work than is usually done 
in high schools. The German department reports thai 
its term's work in many classes has been satisfactorily 
finished - nearly one month earlier than usual. Th( 
mathematics department offers similar statements, as 
do the science and history departments. It must be 
borne in mind that the above results have been obtaine( 
by the teachers who have most sincerely co-operated ii 
the new conference-study plan. 

"This system has not discouraged any of the usu; 



SCHOOL STUDY VERSUS HOME STUDY 305 

school activities, as we have our athletic association, our 
monthly school paper, our orchestra, mandolin club, 
dramatic and other organizations. Administrative diffi- 
culties dwindle in number through our method, since 
self-control and kindred virtues spontaneously appear. 
Because of our method we know that each pupil works 
to the best advantage and actually does some study." 

Home Study Minimized. — Home study should never 
be made a lever for influencing morals by imposing ex- 
orbitant requirements on the student. Has the parent 
no duty in this connection? If the parent is powerless, 
let the social-service organizations aid in strengthening 
moral influences, and permit the school, while co-operat- 
ing, to broaden the pupil intellectually and to give him 
greater mental and ethical power to do and to be some- 
thing. By our plan the boy and girl are given a chance 
to develop manhood and womanhood. The school thus 
proves itself a friend, not a taskmaster, and becomes a 
humane, wise " assistant parent." 

Specific Advantages. — "By the plan given, home study 
is minimized and, in the case of the brightest pupils, even 
ek'minated. The plan permits the child after school hours 
to delve deeply into the treasures of literature while 
doing the laboratory work of English at the school. It 
offers time for other forms of research. It makes possi- 
ble church attendance and consequent religious and 
moral training. It affords time for the impress of home 
and family influences. It gives an opportunity for the 
aesthetic influence of music, the theatre, and the lecture 
hall. The dread that the American boy will find his 
way to the street and to vice if left without home study 
is groundless. For this system has everything to offer 
in the way of spontaneous inspiration to culture, re- 



306 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

finement, good qualities, and the ambitious desire for 
advancement and progress." 

Conserving the Pupils' Resources. — The principle of 
"the conservation of national resources" demands that 
the serious and constant reduction of high school num- 
bers be stopped at the earliest possible moment. 

If we note the continuous effort made to obtain from 
the soil, through intensive cultivation, greater and higher 
yields, does it not seem to be a national disaster that up 
to this time we have actually neglected to follow out this 
principle of intensive treatment, applying it to the im- 
provement of study technic and mastery in the secon- 
dary schools? Long hours of home study indicate lack of 
consideration for the physical welfare of pupils. This 
Central High School (Newark, N. J.) plan of a longer 
day and of period division into recitation and confer- 
ence helps to solve this problem. The natural resources 
of the pupil must be conserved. This plan conserves 
them and at the same time increases the pupil's efficiency 
in school. This plan carried out in details at Newark 
has been adopted in whole or in part at Trenton, N. J., 
Norristown, Pa., Kansas City, Mo., Detroit, Mich., and 
is under consideration for adoption in many cities and 
towns throughout the country. 

Explanation of Tables. — Appended to this chapter are 
several specimen tables collated from the examination 
data of the school. These show the reports of the various 
teachers of the English, German, and science depart- 
ments. Other departments show similar conditions. It 
is interesting to note that the teachers who promoted 
the fewest pupils did not follow the method, those who 
used the plan indifferently had average promotion per- 
centages, and those teachers who systematically and 



SCHOOL STUDY VERSUS HOME STUDY 307 

zealously employed the new idea apparently made the 
best promotion records. 

It has been suggested that it is not reasonable to 
attribute the many good results obtained in the Central 
Commercial and Manual Training High School of New- 
ark to the new method employed in the administration 
of the school. Whether all the good conditions ascribed 
to the method are really due to it or not must be left to 
the unprejudiced judgment of scientific students of edu- 
cational experiments, when standard objective tests of 
efficiency of school administration may have been con- 
ceived and clearly formulated. 



308 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

TABLE I— ENGLISH DEPARTMENT— JANUARY, 1913 





No. on roll day of promotion 


No. promoted 


iB 


1 A 


2B 


2A 


3B 


3A 


4 B 


4A 


1 B 


1 A 

24 
18 

7i 
30 
38 


2B 

27 

79 
36 


2A 

26 
49 


3B 

24 
38 

25 


3A 

18 
13 
35 


4B 

19 
30 


4A 

24 


Alden 


94 
7i 

IOI 

24 
24 
63 

25 


3° 

24 

109 
39 
39 


3° 

ICO 

39 


29 
57 


27 

42 

30 


27 
16 
39 


21 
32 


26 


82 
60 
96 
24 
17 
36 

22 


Goldstein 

Snodgrass 

Holt 


Denton 

Rich 

Muhleman 

Herzberg 


Departmental to- 
tals current term 

General depart- 
mental averages . 


40 2 
739 


241 

422 


169 

272 


86 
1S7 


99 

174 


82 
134 


53 

74 


26 

49 


337 
621 


181 
318 


142 
229 


75 
157 


87 
158 


66 
10; 


49 
71 


24 
45 




No. not promoted 


Per cent of promotion 


1 B 


1 A 


2 B 


2A 


3B 


3A 


4B 


4 A 


iB 


iA 


2B 


2A 


3B 

88.8 
90.4 

83.3 


3A 

66.6 
81.2 
89.7 


4 B 

90.4 
93-7 


4A 
92.9 


Alden 


12 
11 
6 

7 
27 

3 


6 
6 

38 
9 

1 


3 

21 
3 


3 
8 


3 

4 

5 


9 
3 

4 


2 
2 


2 


87.2 
84.5 
95.o 
100. 
70.8 
57-i 

88.0 


80.0 
75.o 

65.1 
76.9 
97-4 


90.0 

79.0 
92.3 


89.6 
85.9 


Goldstein 

Snodgrass 

Holt 




Rich 


Muhleman 

Herzberg 


Departmental to- 
tals current term 

General depart- 
mental averages . 


66 
118 


60 

10. 1 


27 

53 


11 

30 


12 
16 


16 
29 


4 

8 


2 

4 


83.8 
84.0 


75-i 
75-3 


84.0 
84.1 


87.2 
83.9 


87.8 
90.8 


80.4 
78.3 


92.4 
89.8 


92.4 
91.8 


TOTALS 


No. on roll 


No. promoted 

154 
157 
182 

24 

17 
125 
147 
155 


Per cent 


Alden 


174 
185 
199 
24 
24 
199 
185 
168 


88.5 
84.8 
91.4 
100. 
70.8 
62.8 
74.4 
92.2 






Holt 




Rich 












I,ic8 




82 n 


General departmen 


tal 


lvcr 


ages 




2,0 


56 






1,70 


* 




82.4 





On roll at end of term per teacher, average 183. 



SCHOOL STUDY VERSUS HOME STUDY 309 
TABLE I— ENGLISH DEPARTMENT— JUNE, 1913 



Alden.... 
Goldstein . 
Snodgrass . 

Holt 

Daggett. . 
Harvey... 

Rich 

Lewin .... 
Herzberg . 



No. on roll day of promotion 



iB iA 



60 



2B2A3B3A4B4A 



78 



42 



26 23 



30 



55 



No. promoted 



1 B 



1 A 



2B 


2A 


3B 


3A 




62 


17 


32 


14 




29 


17 




32 


25 




68 






17 


18 








21 


19 






121 


113 


7i 


66 


35o 


270 


229 


171 



32 



Departmental to- 
tals current term 

General depart- 
mental averages 



308 
1047 



143 80 
330254 



83 64 55 
217 143 104 



Alden.... 
Goldstein . 
Snodgrass . 

Holt 

Daggett . . 
Harvey. .. 

Rich 

Lewin 

Herzberg . 



No. not promoted 



1A2B2A3B3A 



lA 



Per cent of promotion 



1 B 



71.6 
76.1 

84.2 
85.5 
68. s 
86.3 



1 A 2B 



66.6 
78.9 
87.8 
82.0 

90.3 

72.4 



7i-5 
85.7 
80.7 



2 A 



79-4 
76.1 



12.6 



3B 

77.2 
96.6 
89.2 



3A 



78.1 
80.9 



80.9 



4 B 



83.3 



4A 



94-5 



Departmental to- 
tals current term 

General depart- 
mental averages 



79-2 
82.6 



81.7 
78.1 



74-6 
80.6 



79.0 



7 
90.6 



79-5 
78.8 



89.0 
89-5 



94-5 
93-2 





TOTALS 


Alden : 






Holt : 






Rich 




Herzberg 



No. on roll No. promoted Per cent 



201 

172 

190 

60 

19 

200 

170 

72 

134 



151 

143 

156 

48 

16 

177 

122 

58 

117 



75- 1 
83.1 
82.1 
80.0 
84.2 
88.5 
71.7 
80. s 
87.3 



Departmental totals current term . 
General departmental averages . . . 



1218 

3284 



988 
2692 



81. 1 
81.9 



On roll at end of term per teacher, average, 174. 



310 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



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CHAPTER XII 

HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION THE HIGH SCHOOL'S 
RIGHT ARM 

Mary V. Grice 

FOUNDER OF HOME AND SCHOOL LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA 

Introduction. — The " Commencements — It is com- 
mencement day at the high school. Lights blaze 
throughout the great auditorium. Down every aisle 
pours a flood-tide of humanity. Literally, all sorts and 
conditions of men — representatives from hundreds of 
homes come, attracted by a compelling force to this 
centre of community interest. The curtain^ still un- 
drawn, hangs in dignified folds, typifying the sharply 
denned line dividing the two vital forces of the day. 
The home — eager, expectant, informal, an onlooker, 
waiting breathlessly for the final touch of that hand into 
which its "bloom and flower" have been committed 
during the past four years. The school — assured, di- 
dactic, with an air of work accomplished, breathing final- 
ity in every movement. 

The whisperings of an aunt and older sister to our left 
stir a sense of human interest which quickens into a flow 
of sympathy for the young "Pauline" of whom they 
speak. Such heroic efforts, such forgettings of self, as 
are revealed in their conversation that that one life 
might have reached this day successfully. The sister a 

312 



HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 313 

maker of artificial flowers, the aunt a caretaker of a little 
shop, but the genuineness of their joy over the one in 
that white-frocked group who was theirs related them 
to the whole gathering with the welding power of na- 
ture's touch. 

On the other side a father and mother rehearse in low 
tones their plans for the university life of their son now 
graduating. Running on in happy fashion from this 
day of honor, visioning his law course until it ends in 
a judge's robe. Throughout the great gathering, wher- 
ever the home gives expression to its hopes, similar con- 
fidences are being exchanged. 

A few short hours and the school will have handed 
back to these homes its finished product — handed it back 
with the conscious knowledge that in the large majority 
of cases the home knows no more how to cope with 
the budding powers and impulses of youth than though 
a child had never passed through its doors. That build- 
ing of character through the guidance of the hot blood of 
adolescence into the dynamic of self-control is as un- 
known to most parents as is the nebular hypothesis. 

Community Need versus Traditional Pedagogy. — We 
listened to the whole long programme with that com- 
bined sense of pathos and joy, that yearning surge which 
always stirs in facing youth pushed forward to the 
"firing-line." We found ourself at last one of the crowd, 
surging out into .the night and melting away into the 
separating streams of humanity which ebbed back 
from the evening's flow into the homes whence they 
came. And ever the recurrent question persisted: Why 
should this great public building, erected at such large 
expense to the people, with its force of workers trained 
largely at the expense of the people, be of such small 



314 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

value to its community in proportion to that commu- 
nity's great need? 

The aunt and older sister with their laudable ambi- 
tions, the father and mother with their legitimate pride 
and far-reaching plans are but types that faintly shadow 
the wide divergence of interests and opportunity that 
the schools of a country like ours should be called upon 
to reach, not only in the old-time method of school 
approach, but in a broader way that shall correlate ex- 
isting forces, until together they shall make for greater 
social efficiency. Again we ask: Why should not this 
institution, with its splendidly organized faculty, its 
force of trained workers, its systematized tasks, be 
reaching and moulding these homes in far more vital 
ways than it does? Why should its influence cease with 
the commencement hour? 

As long as youth is in our midst these two forces of the 
home and the school will be directing their energies 
toward the same object. Having very largely the same 
end in view — the development of a manhood and woman- 
hood which shall finally eventuate in citizenship worthy 
of a democracy — why should they work so unknow- 
ingly of each other? Why, indeed, so often in direct op- 
position to each other? The answer seems very simple. 
77 is because they never meet on common ground where 
they can draw from one another the strength which would 
mean an added power to both. If education is, indeed, 
to be a drawing out rather than the in-cramming process 
of the past, to what more profitable form of educa- 
tional endeavor could a school lend itself than to that 
of drawing out from the community about it those 
latent forces that will make for the upbuilding of a noble 
citizenship? 



HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 315 

Night after night the surrounding streets will be filled 
with young life seeking some self-expression, often falling 
a prey to those who in their day and generation are 
"wise" and have commercialized this universal spirit of 
youth. Yet the high school building will stand forbid- 
dingly closed, darkened, and aloof, frowning down on 
public revelling places in pharisaic attitude, thanking 
God it is not as they, forgetting that life is so vastly 
greater than its marble halls, forgetting, indeed, that 
the only possible excuse for its existence lies in the 
contribution it is able to make to the real life of its 
time. 

The School Approach — The Home's Appeal. — Was 
the school satisfied with its "finished" product on that 
commencement night? We cannot speak as one who 
knows, but we should judge from the wave of uncertainty 
and dissatisfaction sweeping over the educational world 
to-day that it was not. 

For the home we can speak, and speak from the inside. 
Never in the history of education has the home been 
more restless than now. Never has it been less willing 
to set its stamp of approval upon the "product" of the 
schools. Proof of this can be seen on all sides. Cur- 
rent publications are filled with denouncements of the 
schools. To be sure, these articles are mostly by the 
laity, but let it not be forgotten that the laity is com- 
posed largely of the taxpayers, and, should they once be 
awakened to their power, changes could be made. Not 
content with anathematizing the system, this same lay- 
man on all sides is "backing" with his influence and 
means various educational experiments, if, perchance, he 
may but prove them out to the satisfaction of those in 
charge of the schools. 



316 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Upon no one point has more criticism been directed 
than upon the high school as it has been commonly 
known. Academic, apart, it has been sending forth its 
finished (?) product almost wholly unprepared for life. 
Back into the homes the students go, to find themselves 
unable to cope with the simple problems of every-day 
living. And the home is as powerless to supply a way 
to help them as the school. Is it not reasonable to sup- 
pose that if these two dynamics in the life of youth were 
but to work together, and work understandingly, there 
would come an added power to both? As it is to-day, 
the school fails to use its good right arm, which is none 
other than this influence of the home. Not until there 
is some method devised whereby this force can be utilized 
through school agencies will any system of education 
attain its full efficiency. 

Home and School Associations. — Here and there spo- 
radic attempts have been made to bring about a helpful 
co-operation between the two, but no one plan has yet 
crystallized into an accepted pattern. After twenty 
years of effort with various experiments we have come to 
the conclusion that so far no better way has been de- 
veloped than that expressed in the simple term "Home 
and School Association." It is wider (not better) in its 
service than the "Mothers' Meeting" and more flexible 
and far-reaching in its influence than the "Parent- 
Teacher" groups. It has a staying quality not to be 
found in the latter. It is more heterogeneous than 
alumni associations and has aims that reach the heart 
fibres of the people more directly than the civic club. 
It grows out of that unerring impulse to human action, 
the love of the child, that is bound, when coupled with 
knowledge, to lead on to better things for the child. 



HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 317 

Aims. — It aims primarily to bring about a closer and 
more intelligent co-operation between the home and the 
school. To accomplish this its chief effort is to stim- 
ulate the home and awaken in it a keener sense of 
its responsibility to the mutual problems facing both. 
The following excerpt from the message of the president 
of the Philadelphia Home and School League at its last 
annual meeting puts it succinctly: 

This organization stands pre-eminently for the stimulating 
of the home to a deeper and more intelligent interest in those 
things which relate to child life. Other organizations exist for 
the education of the public along the lines of educational prog- 
ress as related to the schools. This organization exists for the 
education of the home as it is related to the children of the 
schools. It is not in our province to raise questions of school 
policy, to touch upon pedagogical methods, or in any way to 
oppose the given system of education, unless those of our mem- 
bers who are touching the child in the intimate relation of the 
home feel that school policy, pedagogical methods, or the given 
system are not resulting in a product that will make for the 
betterment of home life; then, and then only, will an organiza- 
tion like this fill its legitimate place when it comes to the front 
and raises questions in regard to any of the above-mentioned 
factors. 

Methods. — This movement is killed before it comes to 
birth if foisted upon the community by outside influence. 
No group of would-be philanthropists, no university, no 
faculty of a school, no board of education has the required 
dynamic within itself to project this thought into the 
hearts of the people with sufficient force to make it bite 
into their lives and hold. There must be a mutual com- 
ing together with the impulse largely from the home. 
Otherwise it becomes but another of the school activities 
and loses its local coloring. While the leader should be 



318 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

chosen from the laity the school should be the guiding 
and directing power. 

Let there be called together in conference a group of 
representative citizens, men and women, whether they 
have children in the school or not; the shibboleth of their 
fitness should be the love and interest they have in the 
young. This group can be formed into a "Citizens' 
Committee" that will aid with its influence and its means 
this movement toward socializing the high school. Cre- 
ate a bureau of speakers by inviting men and women who 
can give worth-while talks to pledge themselves for a 
once-a-season service. Even the busiest people are will- 
ing to make such a contribution in aid of work like this. 
Enlist women's clubs and civic clubs, with public edu- 
cation associations and other organized groups holding 
mutual interests, into an affiliation with the movement. 
By this co-ordination the structure is strengthened for 
its future usefulness. The leaders should be representa- 
tives of the homes and the faculty of the school. Thus 
having launched the association in all sincerity and with 
as little "red-tape" as possible, its further course will 
largely depend upon the local needs and the local de- 
mands made upon it. 

Activities. — The activities into which such an associa- 
tion will enter will be as varied as the people who con- 
stitute the membership. Naturally, the early gatherings 
will be more or less formal. Lectures, moving pictures, 
music may be the ostensible reason for the gathering, 
but the thing accomplished will be the securing from the 
school that human touch which goes far toward inter- 
preting to the surrounding homes the common brother- 
hood for which the school stands. Such meetings suc- 
ceed in projecting the school into the home by means 



HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 319 

less formal and more readily understood than is the 
generally accepted method of school approach. 

What more fitting than that that institution which 
stands as the cultural custodian of the race should break 
the great thoughts of the ages, the heritage of the race, 
into fragments fitted to the comprehension of the many 
instead of the few. Whether this be done by story or 
picture or song, there will be created on the part of the 
school in its response to this social obligation a new kind 
of pedagogy, that of the heart rather than that of the 
head. The high school should be such a centre as this 
in every community. 

Social Teacher. — It will mean an added force of 
trained workers. The thing to be done is too important 
to warrant putting it upon our already overworked 
teachers, either as a side issue or as a sop thrown to 
appease the present popular demands. The added 
workers, in turn, will need the help and power to be se- 
cured from a co-operating body of laymen and women 
of the community. The social teacher will be the con- 
necting link between the two. 

Through all meetings of the home and school there 
must run like the warp through the weave talks and dis- 
cussions concerning youth and the special period of 
development in which at the given time the school and 
those touching the boy and girl more intimately are 
most keenly interested. As the years spent in the high 
school are coincident with the period of adolescence, 
the consideration of that experience will most naturally 
come to the fore. 

Library Extension. — One of the duties of the social 
teacher will be the laying out of programmes for all such 
meetings. A collateral part of this programme will con- 



320 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

sist in the preparation of " Packet Libraries" 1 for use in 
the home. These " packets" can readily be put together 
by the students of the senior class under proper direc- 
tion. Their preparation will require much reading and 
careful research, both of which will lead into the fields 
of child nature and child nurture. The newspaper clip- 
pings, magazine articles, and monographs, with list of 
reference books, noting page and chapter of the subject 
under consideration, will go far toward informing the 
young worker as well as the adults of the home into 
which the packet goes. 

Through the courtesy of the American Institute of 
Child Life we are enabled to give the following out- 
lines of programmes dealing with the adolescent period. 
Space forbids mentioning full contents of packet other 
than as marked by the word " references." 

Boys and Girls in Community Life 

Social Life— The child is educated through association with his 
fellows — the chum, the comrade, student organizations in 
the high school. (References.) 

Amusements. — Wise and otherwise: Dancing — its benefits and 
evils; physiology; rhythm; physical training. The dramatic 
instinct — its educational and moral significance. Moving 
pictures pro and con. Pageant and folk festivals — spirit 
and method. (References.) 

Entertainment. — Children's parties; games; diversions. (Refer- 
ences.) 

Outdoor Entertainment. — The vacation habit: Camp and camp- 
ing. Boy scouts. Camp-fire girls. (References.) 

1 Patterned after the Library Extension idea of the University of 
Wisconsin. 



HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 321 

The Girl and the Woman 

New Conditions. — Yesterday and to-morrow. My mother in 
her home and my daughter in hers. The industrial change. 
The domestic change. The vocations open to women. 
(References.) 

How to Meet Them. — Education; physical training. (Refer- 
ences.) 

Your Daughter. — The young girl in your home — her health; her 
companions; her boy friends; her reading; her aim; her 
future. (References.) 

The Boy and the Man 

The Boy Himself. — Do you comprehend him? Can a mother 
understand impulses and instincts that she has never ex- 
perienced? Why so few fathers remember the boy feelings, 
the boy attitude. Where the father is needed — his respon- 
sibility. What characteristics in a father most appeal to 
his boy? How the nature of a boy differs from that of his 
sister. Why does he like to tease; to fight? Can a boy in 
process of development be designated as "good" or "bad"? 
The boy's bumps and epochs. His motives and his failures. 
The boy's acquisitiveness. The effect of having common 
possessions ; of collections. The wanderlust and the woods — ■ 
Indians and cowboys. (References.) 

His Requirements. — His environment; his home; his family. His 
friendship; his companions — the gang. Boy-made societies. 
Man-made organizations. (References.) 

Education and Vocation 

New Demands. — Preparation for an active life must come 
through participation in duties, opportunities, privileges. 
How to make this participation accessible to young people 
and interesting to them. Working "against the grain." 
The "average boy" and his grievance. Does our modern 
high school curriculum challenge a boy's interest and ca- 
pacity? Process of formation versus information. An in- 
consistent and inadequate course of study in the high school. 
(References.) 



322 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Vocational Education. — The boy who leaves school at fourteen 
— the reason for it; his future. Some sensible changes in 
school work proposed. History of the vocational move- 
ment — American and foreign experiments. Vocational 
training for girls. (References.) 

Higher Education. — Why send a boy to college? Are the suc- 
cessful men to-day college men? Higher education of 
women. (References.) 

Sex Hygiene. — We would add to the above outlines 
the subject of Sex Hygiene as a most timely one for 
high schools to discuss with adults of the community. 
The question as to whether this subject shall or shall not 
be taught by the school is still a mooted one, but there is 
no uncertainty in regard to its being the duty of the 
home. Yet the home in many cases washes its hands of 
the whole thing simply because it has not the requisite 
information nor the inclination to give the instruction. 
If there is any one duty above another which to-day faces 
the school it is the duty this very condition places upon 
it — to help open the eyes of the home to its responsi- 
bility in this matter and to break this apparent " con- 
spiracy of silence." If it is true that a very large part 
of ethical wrong living has to do with sex life and that 
the evil is increasing alarmingly; if it is universally ac- 
cepted that this is a home problem and that it is not 
touched because of the ignorance of parents, then it 
becomes a duty and an obligation on the part of educa- 
tors to educate that portion of society about whom no 
question can be raised — the parents themselves. 

Religious Education in the Home. — Jointly with this 
there should be meetings held to discuss with the parents 
the subject of religious education in the home. The two 
topics are most closely related. Our system of educa- 



HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 323 

tion is arraigned in no uncertain terms because of its 
failure to develop moral fibre. One of the latest and 
most daring charges is as follows: 1 " During the last 
century economic conditions have been regarded as of 
greater importance and religion of less. Investigations 
of earth and nature and the utilization of all resources 
have occupied a race which has made the spirit of Alad- 
din's lamp a slave of utility; which with greedy heart 
has gained the whole world but in the meantime has 
heedlessly forfeited its own soul." 

What profiteth it? thunders down through the cen- 
turies challenging the home as never before. In the 
words of one who has made the period of adolescence his 
special study, we would say to those dealing with high 
school boys and girls: 2 "If you have no religion in- 
vent one for the sake of the young life about you. No 
other power will hold and control the restless surge 
of adolescence and guide it into strong and efficient ma- 
turity." 

Such topics as have been mentioned give a fair sam- 
ple of what could be used to advantage in any high 
school association. After the meeting is over let it be 
known that the packet libraries, dealing with the subject 
considered or the one to be considered at the next meet- 
ing, are ready for distribution in the office of the social 
teacher. Packets are to be taken to the home by mem- 
bers and kept for one month or until the date of next 
meeting. Their signal service to the home cannot fail 
to react for good upon the school life of the students. 

Social Centres. — The use of the high school as a social 
centre is dealt with in a separate chapter. The strong 

1 Ellen Key, Atlantic Monthly, July, 1913. 

2 G. Stanley Hall, Sagamon Sociological Conference, 1911. 



324 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

point of the social centre, which develops as a logical 
result of a home and school association, is that it has a 
certain staying quality in it, a sense-of-community claim 
that social centres created by agencies outside of the 
school cannot have. The very fact that fathers and 
mothers, older sisters and brothers gather here and 
supervise by their presence, while at the same time they 
enter into the festivities of trie young people, make a 
bond worth emphasizing. The whole large question of 
fraternities and sororities comes up in this connection. 
The grievous evils growing out of them would never 
have existed had the home had a better understanding 
of these matters. (See Chapter XX.) 

Home and School Visitor.— The home and school vis- 
itor, another phase of this movement, is generally sup- 
ported by the association or one of its affiliated "bodies, 
while the work is under the direct control of the school 
authorities. The work of such a social agent is too well 
known to need discussion here. An article in a recent 
educational journal calls it 1 "A New Message to the 
Home." This development of the work deals with the 
student who is "out of step," which fact in itself opens 
the way naturally for the " visitor" to touch the home. 
The effort deals almost entirely with the detailed study 
of the dependent, defective, or delinquent youth. The 
results from this method of approach have been marked 
for good in many cases. 

Vocational Guidance. — The growing need for guidance 
in the choice of a vocation on the part of young people 
is opening another most natural avenue of school ap- 
proach to its community, touching, as the school does, 
through this means shop and factory, office and store in 

1 Journal of Education, July 10, 1913. 



HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 325 

intimate human ways. It is right here that the home 
needs help and can give it. Every home and school 
association connected with a high school should have as 
one of its departments a committee on vocational gui- 
dance through which the influence of the home could be 
reached and appropriated by the school. The home 
would be of infinitely more service to its youth did it 
but know the possible relation between the work offered 
and the ability of the boy or girl. The school working 
through its accurate knowledge and the home through 
its sympathy and understanding could in unison save 
many a young life wrecked because of this lost opportu- 
nity. Indeed, we feel sure that in most cases the home 
would do better if it only knew better. 

Home Making and Municipal Problems. — The grow- 
ing interest in home making on the part of profession 
and laity is one of the hopeful signs of the getting to- 
gether of the home and school. One of its marked 
features is the way in which mothers and daughters are 
being swept with a mutual enthusiasm through the new 
gateway of scientific knowledge into woman's old realm 
and are finding it very good. 

The same can be said of the eagerness of groups of 
men and women who are studying municipal problems 
through the agency of home and school associations. 
The very foundations of democracy rest upon a mutual 
understanding and co-operation between the existing 
institutions of government and those by whom these in- 
stitutions were created. It were well could public offi- 
cials meet more frequently, in ways non-political, those 
who have elected them to their positions. This taking 
into their confidence of the people whom they would 
serve will go a long way toward that ultimate ideal when 



326 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

laws shall be written in the heart of a nation as well as 
upon her statute-books. 

The municipal departments of public safety, of public 
works, and public health, the boards of judges and of 
trade, together with the chief executive himself, all have 
a message from the city's centre for the homes that 
have been or should be awakened to their moral obliga- 
tions to the public life. There remains a large service 
for the home makers to render to such corporate bodies. 
Especially is this true of boards of education. As it 
is to-day, one often asks oneself the question: Why 
should an agitation be carried on about the things to 
which the home is opposed when the people themselves 
are so far removed from any reasonable method of ap- 
proach to their boards of education? Does the home 
object to large classes, to long hours, to home study, a 
lack of playgrounds, or to the fact that teachers are 
poorly paid? So completely are the people disfranchised 
in most cases as regards their school affairs that no 
popular movement is effective except through indirection. 

Ultimate Goal. — From what better centre of influence 
could such movements as we have considered radiate 
than from the high school? Set as it almost universally 
is at the apex of our system of education, why should 
it not institute some plan for the direction of community 
activities? A system that will mean much more than 
censorship or control, a system that will make of the 
high school a clearing-house for the human wealth of its 
community — this will bring about in natural ways a 
co-operation between the forces that are moulding our 
future citizens. When social efficiency is given its place 
in the general scheme of education, the social teacher's 
work is standardized and his professional technic de- 



HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 327 

veloped into a system, then will the " right arm" of the 
school be brought into a service that is filled with prom- 
ise and power of larger social good. 

"The common problem — yours, mine, every one's — 
Is not to fancy what were fair in life, 
Provided it could be; but finding first 
What may be, then find how to make it fair 
Up to our means." 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 

Stanton Olinger, M.A., B.D. 

PRINCIPAL WESTMINSTER HALL, LAWRENCE, KANS. 

The School a Social Creation. — The school is a crea- 
tion of society to fulfil a needful function. It there- 
fore serves its purpose best when a vital and intimate 
interrelationship is established between it and the com- 
munity to which it ministers. 

If education is to fulfil its mission to present society, 
all of the social forces that are related to the educative 
process should be correlated and converge upon the sub- 
ject and object of education — namely, the growing child. 

Many social forces influence the education and devel- 
opment of the child, such as home, school, pulpit, press, 
theatre, and the community. It is generally conceded 
by schoolmen that the home and school exercise a more 
determining and direct influence upon the child than do 
any other institutions. The relation of the home and 
the school in the education of the youth is, therefore, of 
primary importance. It should be vital, positive, and 
harmonious. 

Criticisms of the School. — Frequently, however, the 
attitude of the parents to the school is one of indifference 
and sometimes of antagonism. In many localities a great 
gulf seems to exist between the school and the commu- 

328 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 329 

nity. Practical people often look upon the school as im- 
practical. The many current magazine criticisms of the 
school, while often unjust and not to the point, never- 
theless are an index to popular dissatisfaction. 

The Criticisms of the School Not Fully Justified.— The 
school of the present is not less efficient than in the past ; 
but, in consideration of the new functions that have been 
given it, it is not relatively accomphshing its purpose as 
in the past. This situation is due largely to the unusual 
rapidity with which the social consciousness has been 
developing. The term citizenship has come to have a 
much broader significance than formerly. We are com- 
ing to see that no man can live unto himself and that 
citizenship means membership in the community. A 
good citizen will identify his interests with the collective 
interests of the public. We are recognizing the organic 
unity of society as never before. Pulpit, press, clubs, 
and many organizations are stressing the development 
of the social consciousness. The position of the school 
must be readjusted to this new meaning of education. 

These criticisms, however, contain certain elements of 
truth. They are not altogether just for the following 
reasons : first, what can be accomplished with immature 
minds of limi ted experience is often overestimated; second, 
the school, like all other institutions, 'should not seek to in- 
troduce changes too rapidly. Changes should be brought 
about with a certain degree of conservatism and delibera- 
tion. In the third place, society as an organism develops 
regularly in an orderly, not haphazard, way. Adaptation 
and co-ordination, therefore, may become artificial if too 
great pressure is brought to bear in producing a change. 
This time element, on general principles, should be recog- 
nized in all progressive movements. Since the school is 



330 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the expression of community ideals, the responsibility 
belongs to the entire community. However, in the divi- 
sion of labor necessitated by the increasing complexity 
of modern life, the schools* have been more or less set 
apart from the community life. There has, in conse- 
quence, developed a tendency on the part of the citizens 
to delegate the entire education of their children to the 
schools. The result has been that the home and the 
school have grown apart. 

Causes for Separation of Home and School. — There 
are at least two other contributing causes to the distance 
between the schools and the home. One is the economic 
condition of the home. With the vast majority of fami- 
lies the parents are preoccupied. The business of mak- 
ing a living is so strenuous that they feel they have 
little time and energy left for active participation in the 
life of the school. The other is that the method of in- 
struction is technical. The courses of study and cur- 
riculums have little meaning to the average parent. Thus 
the separation of home and school has come about natu- 
rally. The modern social movement, in one of its phases, 
is an attempt to bring home and school into closer rela- 
tionship. Here, as elsewhere, retrospection may teach 
us a valuable lesson. 

The Teacher Formerly a Part of the Community. — In 
the pioneer days, when the community was less popu- 
lous, the teacher was naturally more a part of the com- 
munity than at present. He was acquainted with the 
patrons and was often received into their homes. This 
afforded the opportunity to discuss school problems; and 
the old-fashioned school-teacher talked about his work. 
He had a personal interest in each child in the commu- 
nity. The school and its work were often the principal 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 331 

topic of conversation in the family circle. But to-day, 
with the daily papers, magazines, telephones, trolley- 
cars, and automobiles, both parent and children are too 
much preoccupied to make' the school the chief topic of 
conversation; not even when the teacher visits in the 
homes of the community. 

The activities that centred about the school building 
itself formerly exercised a determining influence in bring- 
ing home and school into closer relationship. Here the 
debating and literary societies met; here the politicians 
of every party came with their campaign speeches; the 
preachers of every denomination were welcomed and 
listened to; even the "wandering astronomer" and "peri- 
patetic lecturer on phrenology" were granted a respectful 
hearing. "Socials," spelling-bees, school exhibitions, 
and "last-day" exercises all had a tendency to establish 
a strong and vital union between home and school. 

The Formation of a Home and School Association. — 
Perhaps the most effective way to establish a closer bond 
of relationship between the home and the school is the 
formation of home and school associations. These or- 
ganizations should include all of the school's voluntary 
co-operative agencies such as women's and mothers' 
clubs, and citizens' leagues; also such patriotic and relig- 
ious orders as the Grand Army of the Republic, the 
Ladies' Circle and Relief Corps, the Daughters of the 
American Revolution, the Women's Christian Temper- 
ance Union, the Young Men's and Young Women's 
Christian Associations, the churches, and other organ- 
izations that have for their object the public welfare. 

These Agencies Are the School's Definite Social As- 
sets. — In view of the present wide-spread interest in the 
public schools, the insistent need is for some method of 



332 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

co-operation. This can be accomplished through a cen- 
tral organization with which the various unofficial vol- 
untary organizations may be affiliated, as has been done 
in Philadelphia and Boston. In some places these or- 
ganizations are too numerous to accomplish the best 
results by each working independently of the others. 
Often there is duplication of effort, and many important 
school problems remain untouched. 

A recent investigation in New York disclosed two hun- 
dred " outside" organizations co-operating with schools. 
There is evidently a great opportunity for the federation 
of the co-operative agencies. On investigation in many 
other cities, and even in villages, perhaps we should find 
many independent agencies already co-operating with the 
school; and the effectiveness of such co-operation might 
be greatly increased by the general federation of clubs 
suggested. 

The Purpose of the Federation. — The ultimate pur- 
pose of a federation is to establish a sympathetic co- 
operation of all the social forces that have to do with the 
developing of citizens for the republic. However, the 
immediate benefits that may accrue to the community 
are many and definite. There is the spiritual or psychic, 
with its welding process in all of its social aspects. The 
material and physical results are conspicuous and signifi- 
cant. The charitable, moral, and religious values are 
apparent. 

The Spiritual or Psychic Aspects. — The home and 
school association promotes social sympathy. In the 
first place, a central organized federation, as the home 
and school association, affords an opportunity for a 
mutual understanding between parent and teacher by 
bringing the school and community into a closer and 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 333 

more vital relationship. It establishes a common bond 
of unity between the teacher and the constituents of the 
school. Mrs. Grice, in her little book "Home and 
School," bears testimony as follows : "The old traditional 
ideas are being reconstructed. Unless the forces of 
home and school take counsel together they will inevi- 
tably to some extent neutralize each other's work and 
weaken its results." Martin G. Brumbaugh speaks 
likewise: "The key-note of our civilization is participa- 
tion and not competition. This is true of our industrial 
progress as well as our social progress. Applying this to 
our educational progress, there arises this general princi- 
ple: educational progress of the best sort is conditioned 
upon the harmonious participation of all the forces that 
work upon the growing child." 

Any agency that will bring the parents and teachers 
together for a friendly and sympathetic discussi'on . of 
their common problems is almost sure to result in mutual 
advantage. The teacher gets the view-point of the par- 
ent and sees the pupil from the standpoint of the home 
environment. The most efficient teacher will thus be 
led to instruct the pupil in the light of the home. Meth- 
ods employed with one type of pupil may be entirely 
satisfactory and successful, while with another type 
they may be an utter failure. The bright child who has 
a disposition averse to industry demands an entirely dif- 
ferent procedure from the dull child who is industrious. 
The education of the spoiled and pampered child and the 
one upon whom heavy home burdens are placed, and the 
education of the child from the cultured and the refined 
home and the one from the crude and the unrefined 
home, should be approached from different angles. The 
teacher should know the child's encouragements and dis- 



334 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

couragements. The parent, on the other hand, appreci- 
ates more fully the view-point of the school and gets a 
better understanding of the aims of the school. The 
parent comes to know more fully what the school ex- 
pects of the child, and why. The reciprocal relation- 
ships between parent and teacher are more clearly seen 
by each other. It leads to a practical and intelligent co- 
operation and promotes a closer companionship between 
parent and child. 

Such a Federation Makes the Heterogeneous Homo- 
geneous. — The home and school association secured by 
such federation not only promotes sympathy between 
parents and teachers, but it mediates in welding into a 
spiritual unity the constituents of the school. The in- 
fluence of a central organization pervades the entire com- 
munity. It has a tendency to make a heterogeneous 
population homogeneous by offering a common bond of 
interest. When the community interest centres about 
the school co-operation naturally follows. 

Group action becomes possible through the process of 
social co-ordination, which in turn is brought about by 
the co-ordination or co-operation of individuals in a pur- 
posive activity. The instrument by which a harmonious 
co-ordination among individuals in social relationships 
is established is sympathy and mutual understanding. 
Only individuals who are sympathetic with each other 
and understand each other are capable of working to- 
gether for a common end. 

Every social group should, therefore, seek to develop 
the spirit of like-mindedness among its members and pro- 
mote their mutual acquaintanceship. Individual differ- 
ences in reaction to the same social stimuli may safely 
be trusted to act as a sufficient safeguard against monot- 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 335 

ony, insuring variety. The harmonious co-ordination of 
activities thus brought about produces a high type of 
mental stimuli — "mind sharpens mind." It is a means 
to a liberal education. 

A concrete illustration will serve to enforce these 
fundamental principles of social co-ordination. Mr. 
Clarence A. Perry, in the "Wider Use of the School 
Plant," speaks of an occasion when the women of Roch- 
ester, who were nearly all American-born, were "at 
home" to the Italian Men's Club. The hostess pre- 
sented the guests with a silk Italian flag for their club. 
The men reciprocated by giving the women a large pic- 
ture of George Washington. Such gatherings as these 
make it possible for us to appreciate the sentiment, pri- 
vately expressed on this occasion, that "people who are 
so different are so much the same." 

Thus the co-ordination of the co-operative agencies of 
the school welds together the individuals and groups of 
the community. Good-will, mutual understanding, and 
mutual trust result. The formation of a spiritual or 
psychic unity, then, is the first step in organizing for so- 
cial activity. 

Federation Produces Public Opinion.— The binding 
together of the co-operative activities about a common 
purpose has a tendency to create public opinion. In a 
highly dynamic democracy such as ours, the help of pub- 
lic opinion is desirable and even indispensable in the pro- 
motion of social activities. 

Since our educational institutions are subject to con- 
stant readjustments, it is desirable that the change come 
about gradually and easily. Otherwise, institutions may 
become so fixed and conservative that readjustments can 
be secured only through the revolutionary process. 



336 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

In the formation of public opinion, communication in 
all its varied forms is the mediative instrument. Dis- 
cussion not only stimulates mentality and furnishes new 
ideas, but certain elements in the situation are selected 
as valuable for the social process under consideration. 
Thus, by the co-ordination of ideas that become relatively 
fixed through discussion, the rational judgment of many 
individuals in a purposive action may be readily and nat- 
urally brought about by the several forms of communi- 
cation, such as language, press, free assembly, etc. 

Public Opinion and the Home and School Association. 
— In a highly complex democracy social progress and 
readjustment are impossible without the rational co- 
operation of the mass of citizens. Such co-operation is 
secured only by the formation of an intelligent public 
opinion. No other organization in the community is so 
well adapted to form a harmonious rational public opin- 
ion relative to the functions, aims, and purposes of the 
school as a home and school association. 

Material Benefits. — By welding the individuals and 
groups of the community together through the instru- 
ment of a common purpose, such a federation as that for 
which we are arguing secures many material benefits to 
the school. The people of the community are thereby 
informed, interested, and have a will to increase the effi- 
ciency of the school. 

Writing of the work of the Home and School League 
of Philadelphia, Mrs. Grice says that it has brought the 
public into closer relationship with the school by the 
organization of social centres and the opening of the 
buildings for evening meetings and classes. In several 
schools classes for dancing, games, instruction in sewing 
and embroidery, in reading and dramatic recitation, in 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 337 

handicraft of various sorts, housework, and home making, 
and physical training have been opened. All of this 
could have been secured in no other way than by a help- 
ful co-operation of the public. 

Other organizations have contributed to the welfare 
of the school. The G. A. R. and the Ladies' Circle and 
Corps have been active in promoting a patriotic senti- 
ment by the gifts of flags, pictures, and statues of patri- 
ots, and by arranging for public addresses and sending out 
literature on the subject of patriotism. The W. C. T. U. 
has been instrumental in cultivating a sentiment in favor 
of temperance by sending out leaflets, making public 
addresses, and offering prizes for the best essays on some 
phase of the temperance question. The D. A. R. has 
been active in providing programmes and speakers on 
patriotism and allied subjects. In Montclair, N. J., the 
playground movement was conducted by a chapter of 
the D. A. R., the Board of Education assuming half the 
responsibility for the expense. 

In some towns the women's clubs have taken charge 
of the musical interests of the community, and have been 
instrumental in introducing music in the schools and 
securing private lessons and instruments for the pupils at 
a nominal price. In co-operation with the superinten- 
dent, they have provided popular musical entertainments 
to raise money and to cultivate the taste of the pupils. 
In Portland the orchestras and glee-clubs of the schools 
give concerts for parents. In Richmond, Ind., all musi- 
cal bodies meet in the auditorium of the school. In Bos- 
ton a garden for ungraded children is maintained by the 
parents' association. More than eight hundred dollars 
was spent on decorations for classrooms and assembly 
hall, besides other funds on pure milk and blankets for 



338 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the anaemic class, a piano, and equipment for crippled 
children. The board of education has no funds for 
such activities. In Richmond, Va., every public school 
has an active mothers' club working for its best welfare. 
By federating themselves these mothers organized a com- 
plete co-operative system between the schools, city offi- 
cials, and the volunteer organizations. As a result, play- 
grounds have been established in almost every school 
yard. A nurse has been placed in the school, and several 
schools have had the continuous service of visiting nurses 
on the playground in case of accidents. Medical inspec- 
tion and dental treatment have been introduced. In one 
town the fathers' club raised two hundred and fifty dol- 
lars to improve the school grounds. In another place 
they maintained, for seven years, school gardens. The 
National Congress for Mothers for sixteen years has been 
actively engaged in the organization of parent-teacher 
associations. 1 

Summary of Material Benefits. — While it would per- 
haps be impossible to give a complete summary of all the 
material benefits that have been secured for the school 
through the co-operative agencies here referred to, the 
following are perhaps the more important: The im- 
provement of sanitary conditions in school buildings and 
grounds and cleaner streets in the neighborhood of the 
school and home have resulted. By planting trees, 
shrubs, and vines the grounds have been beautified. 
The architecture of the school buildings has been im- 
proved, playgrounds opened up, flower gardens planted, 
sanitary drinking fountains installed, and circulating 
libraries established. Flags, pictures, statuary, books, 

1 Literature on the methods, aims, and results may be received by ad- 
dressing The Congress, 806 Loan and Trust Building, Washington, D. C. 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 339 

musical instruments, needed equipment, new buildings 
and additions have been secured. The care for the health 
of children through medical and dental inspection has 
been introduced. The active interest and support of the 
administrative officers in matters relative to increased 
efficiency have been realized, teachers' salaries have been 
increased, needed legislation has been enacted. Curfew 
and supervision of playgrounds have resulted. The 
problems of tardiness and discipline have been to an 
encouraging degree solved and the general school spirit 
improved. 

If all of the agencies co-operating with the school were 
federated, better results could be attained without dupli- 
cation of effort. 

Private Gifts as a Result of the Federation Are Pro- 
moted. — The federation of the co-operative agencies of 
the school, by creating a spirit of solidarity and interest 
in the public welfare, has a tendency to promote private 
gifts in the interest of the school. 

The general interest now manifested in the public 
school might be greatly increased. Elsa Denison, in 
"Helping School Children, ,, calls attention to the gift of 
$41,500 by Mr. Martin A. Ryerson, of Chicago, to deco- 
rate one school building as a model for others. Another 
friend of the school selects each year from the exhibition 
of the Chicago Society of Artists one picture for a school. 
In Dubuque a group of women placed statuary and finely 
framed photographs in every schoolroom. Miss Whit- 
ney, of New York, through a gift of $10,000, has been in- 
strumental in arousing a wide interest in the dental need, 
and is helping tens of thousands instead of thousands. It 
is stated that there are in the United States 10,000,000 
school children suffering from the direct effect of decaying 



340 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

teeth and unsanitary mouths. 1 Mr. W. R. Burt, of Sagi- 
naw, Mich., has given generously to the public schools 
and thereby stimulated the entire city in educational 
progress. The little village of Menomonie, Wis., is an 
example of what a favorable public sentiment may ac- 
complish. It is said that the school system there is 
ideal. This distinction, perhaps, is due largely to Mr. 
James H. Stout, whose liberality is responsible for a 
splendidly equipped manual training building and a 
$75,000 gymnasium which he maintains. The business 
men of Columbus, Ga., contributed $10,000 to the 
schools. Bequests from private sources of $120,000 in 
Oshkosh, $2,000,000 in Muskegon, $75,000 in Saginaw 
made buildings and equipment possible that could not 
have been secured through the regular official channels 
for years. Through small gifts in many other places, 
books, pictures, utensils, apparatus, scholarships, prizes, 
and furniture have been secured. Kindergartens, play- 
grounds, school gardens, athletics have been made possi- 
ble through private gifts. 

The School a Proper Basis of Charity Operation. — As 
a result of the spirit of solidarity and community interest, 
the school may become the basis for charity operations. 
No other institution is so well adapted to become a clear- 
ing-house for social service as the school. No other in- 
stitution understands so fully and comes in such vital 
contact with so many who are in need of charitable 
assistance as the school. The school, also, is in position 
to do this service with as little unjust discrimination 
and undesirable publicity as possible. Many schools have 
been the medium of distributing clothing, provisions, 
and other necessities. Private gifts for this service are 

Venison, op. cit., p. 262. 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 341 

secured with little difficulty. One superintendent writes: 
"We find the people ready to respond to every call of 
need." 

The Moral and Religious Problem. — With commu- 
nity interest and the increased equipment that is almost 
certain to follow, the school may become a social centre. 
Evening entertainments, consisting of lectures, stereop- 
ticon shows, concerts, debates, socials, athletic exercises 
and contests, may become a part of the school's regular 
activities. Thus the opportunity is afforded to the 
whole community for a natural and healthful expression 
of social relationships. One of the important elements 
in the solution of the moral and religious problem is the 
provision for wholesome recreation. By affording an 
avenue for social activity, the delinquent of the com- 
munity are often reclaimed. It is said that knowledge 
alone does not make good citizens. Public morality 
demands a wholesome recreation. " Formation is bet- 
ter than reformation." 

A wholesome recreation has a tendency to reclaim the 
youth from the street and amusements of a vicious char- 
acter, and also to displace evil forces such as the saloon, 
the public dance-hall of questionable character, and 
moving-picture shows of the wrong kind. The way to 
keep the youth away from places of degrading influence 
is not to cry "don't" but offer an alluring activity in 
competition. Dean Sumner, president of the vice com- 
mission of Chicago, states that the contributing causes to 
the social evil are bad housing and economic conditions, 
ignorance, despair and discouragement, social allure- 
ments, and lack of a place to go for honest, simple, clean 
recreation. Nearly all, if not all, of these evils might be 
largely corrected by arousing a public sentiment that 



342 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

will make possible, through the agencies which may be 
made to co-operate with the school, a larger use of the 
school plant, where a simple, honest, and natural recrea- 
tion may result. 

The Present Status. — Although the "home and 
school" associations, wherever initiated and intelligently 
operated, have proved to be of direct benefit to the 
school, yet there are many schoolmen indifferent to this 
aspect of modern education. A few are hostile to the 
new movement and object to "outside" activities inter- 
fering with the regular order of the school. Some su- 
perintendents contend that there is no need of any 
co-operation except from the school board. One super- 
intendent said to the writer: "My board is made up of 
wide-awake, intelligent citizens who are progressive and 
supply all the needs of the school." Another superin- 
tendent stated to the writer that he did not encourage 
parent-teacher associations, because, in a place where he 
had formerly been superintendent, the board of educa- 
tion and a group of club women disagreed about fitting 
up some basement rooms. Later on in the conversation 
he mentioned five needs of his school, all of which have 
been supplied in other places by some of these outside 
agencies. 

On the other hand, schoolmen who see the necessity 
for a readjustment of the school to meet social needs and 
utilize these co-operative agencies to this end are en- 
thusiastic over the new functional possibilities of the 
school. 

A Recent Investigation. — An investigation of the work 
of the agencies which now co-operate with the school, 
made in one of the comparatively new States of the Mid- 
dle West containing only a few cities with over 30,000 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 343 

inhabitants, brought out facts which may be taken as 
typical of many other localities. The following question- 
naire relative to the co-operative agencies of the school 
was sent to one hundred and twenty-four schoolmen of 
the State: 

i. (a) Is there a mothers', parents', or citizens' club in your 
community? 
(b) Is one of its primary objects the welfare of the school 
children? 

2. (a) Form of organization, and how are the officers elected? 

(b) Are they chosen with a view to fitness and efficiency, 

and in what respects? 

(c) Should the superintendent or principal use any personal 

influence in the selection of officers? Why? 

3. What relation should the superintendent and the principal 

sustain to the organization? Please give reasons for your 
position. 

4. Please state what you consider the advantages accruing to 

the school from such organizations, giving illustrations of 
any reforms or progressive movements or other direct 
benefits that may be traced to the co-operation of these 
organizations and the school. 

5. Are there any dangers for the school in this co-operative 

alliance with an outside social force? 

6. Where does the club hold its meeting? How often? What 

is the nature of the programme? 

7. How may these organizations be more generally and more 

effectively utilized for the development of the school? 

8. Please state in detail as far as possible how such a club 

should be started and then fully organized. 

Thirty-two replies were received. Only five out of 
thirty college presidents and college professors of educa- 
tion on the list responded. The replies show that only 
sixteen schools have some kind of voluntary, unofficial 
organization in connection with the school. Fourteen 
report that the primary object of the organization is the 



344 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

welfare of the school children. Thirteen state that the 
officers are elected at a mass meeting by popular vote 
and are chosen with a view to fitness and efficiency. In 
two towns the officers are elected at a public meeting 
called by the United Women's Clubs. In one place the 
election is under the auspices of the Women's Christian 
Temperance Union. ■ 

Of the sixteen superintendents and principals of 
schools having co-operating agencies, eleven believe that 
the superintendent and principal should exercise personal 
influence in the selection of the officers. Four state that 
the superintendent and principal should act only in an 
advisory capacity. One says that they should be " inter- 
ested listeners only." The entire sixteen are convinced 
that the principal and superintendent should sustain a 
vital relation to the organization, encouraging, inspiring, 
and directing. The superintendent and principal may 
be chosen as officers if qualified persons are not available. 
As a general principle, however, it is better to select the 
officers from the school's constituents. The exact rela- 
tion of the superintendent and principal to the organi- 
zation should be determined by local conditions. 

Advantages That Will Accrue to the School. — Twelve 
of the fourteen superintendents and principals who have 
first-hand knowledge of the voluntary, unofficial organi- 
zations in connection with the school state that they are 
able to see definite and positive benefits resulting to the 
school from such organizations. These advantages may 
be summarized as follows: the organization improves 
the educational sentiment in the community by en- 
lightening the community upon the present-day move- 
ments in their relation to the school; it brings about a 
closer acquaintance and a better understanding between 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 345 

teachers and parents; its serves as an opportunity to pro- 
mote civic pride among the children; it gives an oppor- 
tunity to present the needs of the school; it may be 
instrumental in procuring additional funds for an in- 
creased equipment, interior decorations, and additional 
playgrounds, etc. 

One superintendent writes that he is not favorably 
impressed with the home and school associations. His 
reply is significant: "I have had little experience with 
them. The ones that I have known were a nuisance to 
the administration, running off at some tangent." It is 
true that the home and school association may be a nui- 
sance and run "off at some tangent," but is it not possi- 
ble to guide this interest into useful channels and utilize 
it for definite ends, as many superintendents have done? 

To the question, Are there dangers to be guarded 
against in the school's co-operation in this way with an 
outside agency? the answers show a diversity of opinion. 
The six superintendents of cities of the first class who 
answered the questionnaire are agreed, except one, that 
there are dangers for the school in a co-operative alli- 
ance with outside social forces against which it is neces- 
sary to provide safeguards, while seven of the ten su- 
perintendents and principals of cities of second class who 
have had experience with outside social agencies co- 
operating with the school foresee no dangers. This 
diversity of opinion is probably due to the fact that in 
the larger centres the social situation is more complex 
and dangers that threaten the school are more likely to 
arise from the school's co-operative agencies. However, 
the five superintendents who see the dangers believe that 
through intelligent counsel and efficient leadership the 
evils may be avoided. 



346 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Weekly or bimonthly meetings are held generally in 
the school building. Yet in one town the meetings are 
held in the court-room, in another in the public library, 
and in two towns the meetings are held in the homes. 

Suggested Subjects for Programmes. — The topics dis- 
cussed at the meetings of such associations should be of 
mutual interest to parents and teachers and be related 
to child welfare. They should be as varied as possible 
and so presented that their practical value may be read- 
ily seen and appreciated. The following topics may be 
used effectively for programmes and discussions: city 
improvement, sanitation, charity, culture, defective and 
delinquent children, factory laws and child labor, vaca- 
tion schools and playgrounds, personal expenditures for 
graduating exercises, compulsory attendance, places of 
amusement for children, the relation of the physical, 
mental, and moral life of the child to his school work, 
school athletics — work and play — their educative value, 
the value of toys and games, the literature of the home, 
parties, fraternities and sororities, the responsibility of 
the mother, the sex problem, dangerous vices among 
children. There are also many other topics which local 
conditions and needs may suggest. 

How to Organize a Home and School Association. — 
The following steps leading to the organization of a vol- 
untary agency to co-operate with the schools seem to be 
clearly defined. 

First. — Let the superintendent and a few others who 
may be interested create a public sentiment in favor of 
the organization by talking to the women's clubs and 
other social and civic organizations in the community 
and to as many influential persons as possible. 

Second. — Call a mass meeting and advertise this 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 347 

meeting well through handbills telling of the speaker, 
subjects, and place of meeting. 

Third. — Elect temporary officers as soon as the mass 
meeting is called to order. 

Fourth. — Have a capable person, who has been pre- 
viously selected, give a talk or an address on a subject 
of vital interest to the school and of local significance. 

Fifth. — Then let the presiding officer state briefly and 
concisely the purpose of the meeting, calling attention 
to successful organizations in other places. 

Sixth. — Elect permanent officers. In the method of 
selection the spirit of democracy should prevail. Let the 
nominations be spontaneous. This does not necessarily 
preclude the personal influence of the superintendent 
and other persons who are vitally interested. 

Seventh. — The various committees, which will be de- 
termined largely by local needs, should be selected. The 
more important are those on the constitution and by- 
laws, programme, membership, publicity, and finance. 
The affiliated agencies should be as fully represented 
as possible. 

Eighth. — The place and date of the next meeting 
should be determined. 

Ninth. — Arrangements should be made to advertise 
the next meeting and the programme well. 

Tenth. — Before the next meeting the committees 
should organize. The committee on constitution, mem- 
bership, and publicity should prepare material that 
properly pertains to their several departments in order 
that it may be available as soon as possible. 

The constitution should be simple and yet sufficiently 
comprehensive to cover the activities of the organization. 
The following proposed constitution may be suggestive: 



348 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

CONSTITUTION OF HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 

Article I 

Name 

The name of this organization shall be Home and School 
Association of the City of . 

Article II 

Object 

The object of this association shall be a better understanding 
between parents and teachers, their co-operation in all work in 
the interest of children, the study of the welfare of the child 
in home, school, and community, and the promotion in general 
of the interests of education. 

Article III 

Membership 
All parents, teachers, and other persons of the city of 



interested in the purpose for which the Parent-Teacher Associa- 
tion is organized shall be eligible for membership. 

Article IV 
Officers 

The officers shall consist of a president, a vice-president, a 
secretary, a treasurer, elected annually in March for the ensuing 
school year. They shall perform the duties that usually devolve 
upon such officers. 

Article V 

Executive Committee 

The executive committee shall consist of the superintendent 
of the school and the officers of the association. This committee 
shall perform the duties that usually devolve upon executive 
committees. 






THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 349 

Article VI 
Meetings 
Regular meetings shall be held at o'clock on the 



afternoon or evening of each month of the school year except 
September. 

Article VII 
Amendments 

Amendments to this constitution may be adopted by a ma- 
jority vote after they have been proposed at a previous meeting. 

Article VIII 
Programmes 

All programmes shall be prepared by the executive committee 
with the approval of the principal. 

The membership committee should have printed an 
enrolment card of good material and about 4x7 inches 
in size, to be used in the next general meeting and in the 
"follow-up" policy of visitation and mailing. If possi- 
ble every person in the community should be given an 
opportunity to join the association. The following is 
suggested as an enrolment card. On one side is the in- 
vitation to become a member of the home and school 
Association : 

(Name to whom sent) 



You are very cordially invited to become a member of the 

Home and School Association of the City of . If it is 

your pleasure to do so, you will sign an enrolment blank on the 
reverse side of this card. Eight meetings will be held during the 
year in the High School Auditorium. Interesting and helpful 



350 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

programmes have been arranged. Well-informed speakers and 
instructors will be secured. 

Very respectfully yours, 



Superintendent. 



Chairman Membership Committee. 

The reverse side of the enrolment card may have 
something like the following: 

The Home and School Association of City. 

Superintendent 

or 
Chairman of Membership Committee. 

It is my desire to be enrolled as a member of the Home and 
School Association of the Public Schools of . Recog- 
nizing the child as the central thought in the work of the public 
schools, I shall endeavor to do all in my power as a member of 
the Home and School Association to promote the welfare of our 
children. 

Name 

Address 



The publicity committee should circularize the com- 
munity with handbills announcing the speakers and pro- 
gramme for the next meeting. The following notice may 
be of service in offering suggestions: 

To the Patrons of the Public Schools of . 



One of the most important meetings of the Home and School 
Association of the year is arranged for 

The High School Auditorium 

Date 

The speakers will be: 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 351 

This programme is arranged to bring to the patrons of the 
school a discussion of the necessity of all proper safeguards to 
the social life of the young people of this city. Information as 
to the facts will give much protection. Knowledge will make 
many a path straight. The speakers on this programme are per- 
sons of ripened experience in dealing with social questions too 
often neglected and, on account of their private nature, very 
little discussed. 

The subject of this programme needs you. The best interests 
of the young people of the city need your presence at this 
meeting. Come with an open mind. If a large number of 
earnest, conscientious citizens ever get together on some of the 
things that will be discussed in this programme some far-reach- 
ing work will be done in this city. Mark the date and arrange 
to attend. This is more than an ordinary call. 

The meeting will be given under the auspices of the Home and 
School Association. 



Publicity Committee. 
Superintendent of Schools. 



The Social Expert a Necessity. — In view of the new 
functional responsibilities that are being imposed upon 
the modern school and the already heavy burdens rest- 
ing upon superintendents and teachers, a serious question 
arises as to who shall assume the additional responsibili- 
ties. The following suggested policies may answer the 
question partially at least : 

One method suggested is that the teacher become 
socially responsible for the pupils under her charge. 
This policy in the villages and rural communities may 
be successful, in a measure, if the teacher is qualified for 
such activities. However, in communities of more than 
one school building this method would fail to develop in 
the community and the school a spirit of solidarity which 



352 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

is fundamental to community co-operation. Moreover, 
the average teacher who conscientiously devotes her 
energy to the curriculum duties has little vitality for 
added responsibilities. 

A second method that has met with considerable fa- 
vor is the employment of a home and school visitor — the 
method now followed in Boston and some other cities. 
Within a limited sphere this method provides fruitful 
opportunities. The visitor meets many parents who are 
unable to attend the meetings of the home and school 
association and study scientifically the home in its moral 
and hygienic aspects. The visitor thus may become the 
social medium through which the co-operation of home 
and school may be effected and the parents in particular 
be more fully enlightened respecting the aims and the re- 
quirements of the school. In fact, almost all of the 
problems of the school that are presented publicly in the 
general meetings of the home and school association may 
be discussed by the parent and visitor, although in some 
phases not so effectively. On the other hand, the visitor 
may enlighten the teacher with respect to the home en- 
vironment of the pupils under her care. There is this 
difference, however, that the teacher, through the home 
and school association, becomes acquainted with home 
conditions by meeting the parent face to face. Through 
the visitor his contact is indirect, since it is the visitor 
only who comes face to face with the parent. Because 
of this directness of the social contact the situation is 
one of greater delicacy than where the teacher comes 
in contact with the parent through the meeting of the 
home and school association. Here the opportunity is 
afforded to observe home conditions indirectly without 
creating the suspicion that the teacher is doing " mission- 



THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 353 

ary" work. When through the home and school asso- 
ciation the teacher and parent co-operate, it is like say- 
ing, "Come with us; working together we will do the 
child good"; while the policy of the visitor is more like 
saying: "Come with us; we will do thee good." To do 
efficient work in such a delicate position, the visitor 
should be a person of highly developed social sympathy 
and one of wide experience, sound judgment, and tact. 

The Larger Work. — -The larger work, however, of weld- 
ing the constituents of the school into a psychic unity 
cannot be undertaken or accomplished by the home and 
school visitor. The work of the visitor, in the nature of 
the case, is confined to particular situations and prob- 
lems. It seems quite evident that the larger work of 
bringing the constituents of the school into a close and 
vital relationship demands a social or civic engineer, who 
shall be associated with the superintendent or himself 
be the superintendent, and whose special duty it shall 
be to organize the school in all of its phases for social 
efficiency. This position demands a person with a thor- 
ough and practical training in sociology. He must be 
familiar with the recent social movements as related to 
the school. He should possess in high degree the qual- 
ification of a leader, initiative and capacity as an exec- 
utive. He must possess a breadth and depth of sym- 
pathy that will give him a real and vital interest in people. 
He must approach his vocation with a devotion akin to 
religious zeal. The cry of the needy, the oppressed, the 
ignorant, the weak, and the misdirected must be heard 
distinctly by him. 

Summary and Conclusion. — In meeting the demands 
of modern education, there seem to be certain well- 
defined principles that relate themselves to the school 



354 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

and its co-operative agencies. A favorable public senti- 
ment relative to the school should be created. The com- 
mon interest that binds the constituents of the school and 
the teachers together, and the common end for which 
both work, are the welfare of the child. The life of the 
school should be so formed and the curriculum so con- 
structed that the pupils may become actual participants 
in the life of the community. The work of social re- 
construction undertaken in connection with the school 
should be prosecuted under the direction of a social 
expert. 



PART III 

DEFINITE INTERNAL EXPRESSIONS OF 
THE SOCIAL NATURE AND SOCIALIZING 
FUNCTION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 

CHAPTER XIV 

THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT AS AN EXPRESSION OF 
THE SOCIAL CHARACTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 

H. L. Miller, A.B. 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION AND PRINCIPAL OF THE WISCONSIN 
HIGH SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 

The tone or spirit of the school eludes descriptive 
analysis. Many and varied factors taken in their com- 
posite setting are contributory. To assert with dogmatic 
conviction the precise value of any particular school 
activity invites scepticism. The exact contribution of 
any one of the many forces operating in the development 
of personality, character, public opinion, or an institu- 
tion such as the school is not easily determined. One of 
the vital problems confronting us to-day is to find out 
how to array the forces of secondary education so that 
those who are to constitute the citizenship of to-morrow 
may realize more fully and effectively that "this adoles- 
cent nation is growing ethically self-conscious and is 

355 



356 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

learning to give battle with the moral weapons of its 
available public spirit — the habitual expression of char- 
acter socialized." 1 In a very definite sense, education 
may be regarded as a kind of social debt which the State 
owes its prospective citizens. 

Application of Social Standards to Educational Forces. — 
It is significant to note the increasing tendency to apply 
the social standard in the interpretation of educational 
forces. The expression, " social efficiency," has gained 
wide acceptance and bids fair to become our best state- 
ment of the goal of education. Culture, utility, disci- 
pline, and other variants are gathered up in this harmo- 
nizing standard. It is the capacity to deal effectively with 
social situations that attaches importance to this more 
or less universally accepted view. Those who urge the 
adoption of this all-inclusive aim find it necessary to 
extend the meaning of the term social in order that the 
varied proximate and ultimate aims may be included. 
For example, the moral element is focal in the considera- 
tion of human-welfare problems. The mere control of 
situations, however complex, is insufficient. At once the 
comprehensive term "social" must be regarded as equiv- 
alent to moral or defined broadly enough to include all 
that is implied in the ethics of human relations. Hence, 
the "socially efficient individual," capable of "pulling his 
own load," must be mindful of the rights of others. The 
capacity to deal effectively with social situations implies 
altruistic conduct. 

It is not a valid objection to this statement of the 

aim of education that its meaning must be examined in 

great detail. The present tendency to relate educational 

practice to life is a corrective to mere generalizing. A 

1 Alexis F. Lange, N. E. A. Report, 1907, p. 719. 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 357 

standard of " social efficiency" applied to the school is 
valuable in so far as definite situations are more intelli- 
gently and fruitfully worked out. The chief value in 
the social interpretation of education lies in the sug- 
gestiveness of the view. No aspect of the school has 
been left unsurveyed under its stimulus. The school is 
regarded as an essentially socializing institution. Out 
of this conception have developed new possibilities for 
productive modification and redirection of practice. To 
regard the school, however, as a social institution and 
nothing else is misleading. The school is not simply an 
aggregation. Its character is determined " partly by the 
streak in human nature" and " partly by the influence 
of social surroundings." To say that the school exhibits 
social aspects in its varied activities is a valid conten- 
tion. We may expect to find varying amounts of social 
significance, of greater or less importance, attaching to 
any phase of education we may wish to examine. 

For the purpose of still further orientation in the par- 
ticular field of this chapter it may be well to point 
out the fact that the school has long been a social insti- 
tution. The old-fashioned three R's are now presented 
as the fundamental social arts. Language is a kind of 
intellectual currency — an effective instrument in work- 
ing out the manifold relationships in our complex civili- 
zation. Number concepts are essential to effective par- 
ticipation in the affairs of life. Ability to express ideas 
and communicate plans economically implies facility in 
the use of the common means of expression. Our fore- 
fathers were dealing with fundamental training for "so- 
cial efficiency" in their devotion to the impartation of 
common knowledge and the creation of common senti- 
ment whereby the interchange of ideas and the recipro- 



358 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

cal regard of each for others might become facile. The 
dominant note in our democracy is just the conception 
that common knowledges and common attitudes shall 
constitute the intellectual and emotional coin of the 
nation. 

It is often alleged that vocational courses are highly 
desirable on account of their intrinsic content values, 
which may be utilized in training for immediate adjust- 
ment to commercial and industrial conditions, thereby 
contributing definitely to the making of socially efficient 
citizenship. Bringing together these two apparently 
divergent aims — the liberal and vocational — under the 
new standard proposed, there seems to be no difficulty in 
coming to some general agreement as to the function of 
the school. It is necessary that the cry for reform should 
be attended to, but at the same time those lines of effort 
which gave our schools in the past the strength of their 
position should be safeguarded. The rapid organization 
of high school education both in content and method 
bears clear testimony to the recognition of broadening 
conceptions of education. Individual as well as social 
needs are seen to demand a redirection of educational 
forces. One of the many possibilities which might be 
suggested is the six-year elementary school followed by 
a six-year secondary school. With this division as a 
possibility of the near future, new problems in both ex- 
ternal and internal government and organization are 
pressing for solution. 

Democracy and Education. — However ways and means 
may vary, there seems to be universal agreement, practi- 
cally speaking, that our educational system shall be in 
fact one system with a clear vision that the American 
high school shall be cosmopolitan in character, offering 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 359 

within its organization opportunity for the satisfaction 
of divergent individual needs. This view expresses the 
cherished ideal of democracy at its highest and best. 

The social mingling of all classes is not peculiar to the 
high school alone, but it is especially significant owing 
to the fact that it is during this period that the social 
consciousness is being rounded out and permanent life 
attitudes are being developed. The sporadic objections 
to the composite character of the public high school, ex- 
pressed now in a demand for narrow specialized trade 
training, now in a misguided enthusiasm for a segregated 
secondary school devoted to the ideals of scholarship — - 
the implication in either case being that arbitrary selec- 
tion shall be exercised — meet with little serious support. 
We have no sympathy with any propaganda that sug- 
gests caste. Democracy and education are loosely con- 
ceived as synonymous and, so conceived, operate as a 
check on practice based on predetermining factors. All 
children in a democracy are to be given a chance to find 
themselves. Within the school itself, as well as in the 
administration of school systems in general, every effort 
is made to break up insulated classes and safeguard all 
tendencies that might result in unsympathetic or anti- 
social conduct. " Unless the all-inclusive group finds 
means to assimilate and reconcile its members and weaken 
the ties that bind members into minor groups, the social 
order will be disrupted," and just as "society must muz- 
zle Jesuit and mafiate, conspirator and anarchist as well 
as the man of prey," 1 so the school must be organized 
and controlled with similar intent. 

The high school as the prophetic representative of the 
nation's maturer democracy is our common social high- 
1 E. A. Ross, "Social Control," p. 52. 



360 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

way where we shall expect to have engendered and main- 
tained an all-pervading mutual understanding through 
vital emphasis upon common standards, democratic 
ideals, and altruistic attitudes. Within the larger social 
setting of the school as well as in the classroom are 
detectable and potent forces operating effectively in the 
development of both individual capacity and social 
unity. 

General Character of the High School Period. — The 
high school presents unique problems of organization 
and control. It undertakes to deal with the "yeasty" 
period of adolescence — fourteen to eighteen years of age. 
The State no longer exercises the type of control which 
in previous years obtained under compulsory attendance 
laws. The home in the last analysis exercises its per- 
suasive powers in urging attendance. The choice, more- 
over, comes at a critical time. The period of " storm and 
stress" is well under way. Dominant interests are being 
selected out of the many conflicting and specialized in- 
terests incident to youth. This is the stage of conscious 
reorganization and evaluation. The high school seeks 
to organize its activities so as to guide in a self-realizing 
and self-estimating process. Opportunities to test pow- 
ers seriously in many lines should be presented. Contact 
with fellow pupils and teachers in all wholesome situa- 
tions affords a rich and true content for "salvation by 
fellowship." Ability to co-operate as well as individ- 
ual initiative and independence are included as possible 
achievements. The cultivation of a sense of responsi- 
bility might well constitute the dominant aim during 
these years. The effective management of the high 
school calls for large vision of the possibilities of youth. 
Under the stimulating leadership and sympathetic direc- 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 361 

tion of principal and teachers competent and fit to deal 
with such vital problems, tangible results of commanding 
importance to society may be confidently expected. 

External Agencies as Conditioning Factors. — In the 
larger view of the school one must consider the standards 
of the community. Contrast the situation which obtains 
in Kansas City, for example, with the all-too-common 
practice. For thirty years the opposing political parties 
have had a working agreement in the selection of mem- 
bers for the board of education. Nominating and 
indorsing alternate between the parties. It is tacitly un- 
derstood that the party whose turn it is to select a candi- 
date must nominate a representative of the highest civic, 
moral, and intellectual ideals of the community. This is 
a high compliment to the intelligence and public interest 
of a community and makes it a distinct honor to render 
service in education. The reflex effect and influence of 
such dignified performance upon boys and girls must be 
wholesome. The type of administrative method em- 
ployed is reflected in the ideals and spirit of the school. 
Outward adjustment to conditions controlled by society 
is a vital factor in the maintenance of discipline and the 
promotion of efficiency. More important than elaborate 
equipment in buildings and furniture, from the social 
point of view, is the character of society's representatives 
in the administration of public institutions. 

The most difficult task imposed upon boards of educa- 
tion is the selection of members of the supervisory staff 
of instruction, especially the superintendent of a school 
system. In the superintendent is vested or should be 
vested the direction of the educational policy of the com- 
munity. The capacity to render professional service be- 
gins with ability to select for members of the supervi- 



362 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

sory and teaching staff — principals and teachers — those 
who through scholarship, both acquired and dynamic, 
through training and varied contact with life are able 
to direct boys and girls in the productive employment of 
their powers. This responsibility, together with the prob- 
lems of tenure, promotion, and remuneration, rests with 
the superintendent. His recommendation should mean 
appointment. With constructive ability, scholarly in- 
sight, specialized skill, and fearless leadership the schools 
are set definitely on the way to achievement commensu- 
rate with their possibilities in social service. The 
principal of the high school should be consulted in the 
selection of teachers. Acting jointly with the superin- 
tendent in the consideration of the claims of prospective 
teachers constitutes the first step in establishing co- 
operation. To be charged with the responsibility for 
securing tangible results without a voice in the selection 
of the most important agency in education is absurd in 
theory and disastrous in practice. The underlying guid- 
ing principle in this matter is the conception of the 
s vhool as a great co-operative undertaking. By apply- 
ing this principle in the organization and control of the 
school in all particulars we have developed an institu- 
tion which, co-operatively directed, exerts a salutary in- 
fluence upon the pupils who come in contact with its 
operation. A clear recognition of the function of sup- 
erintendent, principal, and teachers is sorely needed for 
institutional reasons. The attitude of the community 
toward education is determined in large measure by the 
type of teaching provided. The teaching process is con- 
ditioned by the character of control exercised by those 
charged with supervisory and administrative powers. 
To give a teacher a chance and to make provision for the 






THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 363 

exercise of originality are essential if the full benefits of 
instruction are to be derived. 

The principal is charged with the immediate super- 
vision of instruction and must have a free hand in this 
function. He is charged with the detailed managerial 
duties in all matters pertaining to the conduct of pupils. 
His relation to the board of education and superintendent 
should be advisory in all cases of disagreement between 
pupils and the school or between teachers and their work. 
When his judgment cannot be relied upon it is time for 
radical readjustment. To appear as defendant or com- 
plainant before a higher tribunal in the presence of an 
array of relatives and friends of the aggrieved party 
ought to be regarded as undignified. The most effective 
method of breaking down the discipline of a school is to 
give currency to the impression that those charged with 
its management are not trusted. Pupils are quick to 
sense loss of confidence. If it becomes necessary to give 
attention to a case of overt disagreement, the gravity of 
the situation should be serious enough to warrant the 
procedure that would invite the embarrassment indi- 
cated. A clear statement of facts with all relevant bear- 
ings should be filed with the superintendent, and then if 
it is de'emed advisable to call the principal into deliber- 
ative counsel let it be done in privacy or executive ses- 
sion. This point is not elaborated to suggest that settle- 
ment of disagreements occupies any considerable time, 
but rather to indicate the importance of safeguarding a 
principle of management which is vital in school practice. 
No scheme of control has yet been devised which will 
permanently obviate disagreements, and the school must 
be organized for effectively operating when a scientific 
diagnosis justifies the measure. Previous consultation 



364 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

saves much blundering in practice. The history of the 
case is also important and suggests the need of better 
methods of recording results of experience. 

Teachers and Principal, a Representative Social 
Group. — The relationship between principal and teach- 
ers and between groups of teachers is reflected in the 
conduct and attitude of pupils. The principal and teach- 
ers constitute a social group in which mutual helpfulness, 
courtesy, sympathy, open-mindedness, thoughtfulness, 
and team work should be exhibited in a refined and whole- 
some manner without servility or submissive spirit. 
The finest loyalties in this respect lie below the super- 
ficial appearance of things embedded in intelligently 
directed enthusiasms for teaching as a fine art. The 
highest test of leadership of superintendent or principal 
consists in ability so to organize instructional means as 
to develop such creative genius and dynamic fitness as 
teachers may possess. To attain these ends means, 
frankly, less machinery and larger freedom in the exer- 
cise of initiative. Every teacher should count as an in- 
dividual, not as a unit in a school system. Our keenest 
need in education to-day is professionally directed super- 
vision which allows for full co-operative team play — the 
principal and teacher carrying out a mutually acceptable 
policy. The critical methods usually employed are ex- 
tremely superficial and exasperating, consisting often in 
calling attention to janitorial functions, time-tables and 
schedules, and similar elements in mere school keeping. 
An evaluation of instructional skill and appreciative 
scholarship presupposes capacity to interpret processes. 
Productive methods of supervision call for keen abilities 
in weighing situations and responses. It is a type of 
work that does not lend itself to didactic formulation. 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 365 

Teachers with broad views of the subjects they are teach- 
ing and of their task in the teaching process are many 
times annoyed by petty interference under the guise 
of supervision. Supervisory relations are personal and 
direct in character. They cannot be reduced to a sys- 
tem of accounting. The importance of keeping certain 
records for statistical purposes is readily recognized. 
Supervision is emphasized in this connection for the 
obvious reason that it is the bond between teachers and 
principal. The principal who takes the view that teach- 
ers are in their classrooms to teach, and to teach so as to 
educate, and who looks to the teacher for results, and 
who aids in intelligent ways in securing results, exhibit- 
ing thereby comprehensive and constructive views of 
educational values and of teaching method — such a prin- 
cipal becomes an integrating force in harmonizing the 
various interests represented in a teaching staff. The 
deeper loyalties spring up out of a genuine devotion to 
work directed with intelligence. 

Not only in the selection of teachers, but also in the 
relationships between them and supervisor, there must 
be applied the principle of a democratic conception if 
we are to expect a development of institutional means 
which are to control in the development of democratic 
habits and ideals among pupils. A caste system for 
teachers is incompatible with socially conceived ends in 
education. There is a service that is not servile, which 
superintendent and principal, as servants, may render 
teachers. The permanent values in school life are to 
be found where free teachers and pupils meet together. 
Hence, all details of organization both external and in- 
ternal, arrangement of programmes of study, adjustment 
of courses of study, assignment of pupils to teachers, the 



366 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

managerial aspects of the daily routine, the development 
of enterprises and activities among pupils are brought to 
a focus in the classroom and are designed, each and all, 
to make effective the work of the teacher. 

Development and Expression of the Corporate Life of 
the School. — It is one thing to provide for the expression 
of school spirit and quite another thing to create by 
legitimate means a school spirit worthy of expression. 
There is danger in the cultivation of mere external forms 
of activities if this fundamental conception is blurred. 
With a superficial regard for intellectual pursuits and 
low standards in pupil enterprises there easily develops 
a ridiculous exhibition of the froth of school spirit worked 
up for special occasions. Under healthy conditions where 
pupils' energies are wisely distributed and directed, it is 
conceivable that school spirit expressed in properly con- 
trolled channels may become the efflorescence of genuine 
interests developed in the serious activities of school life. 
A vitalizing school sentiment must find its roots in deeper 
soil than any adventitious enterprise, however valuable 
in itself as such, if it is to have permanent value. This 
distinction between the more fundamental nature of 
school spirit and the proper modes of expression serve to 
emphasize rather than diminish the importance of activ- 
ities organized with reference to the latter. Provision 
should be made in all high schools, regardless of numbers, 
for the wholesome expression of life. Expression modifies 
experience and gives new direction. As a going concern, 
the school gains momentum from year to year until the 
moral sentiment thus created becomes a constant and 
saving force. The good name of a school is a matter of 
growth. The curriculum is defective if it fails to instil in 
each pupil an institutional feeling. This comes out of 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 367 

participation in the expressive forms of conduct socially 
directed. "The institutional sense is a consciousness that 
every person is a social unit, that he is an essential ele- 
ment in organized society, and that there is a machinery 
for social control to which he must submit. It tries to 
bring home to the child that life is a give-and-take affair, 
that we owe an obligation to society for each privilege 
that we receive from society, that each of us must show 
due respect for the laws, the customs, and the standards 
of society, that we must obey them voluntarily or be 
forced to obedience by the machinery that is established 
for that purpose." l 

Adult Guidance. — The suppressed premise in this pres- 
entation is clearly the view that high school boys and 
girls are entitled to the benefits of mature experience. It 
is not a time to turn over to immature youth the manage- 
ment of an institution which calls for critical types of 
judgment and rare insight in interpreting its functions 
in individual and social situations. Stating the premise 
in direct terms, that school is wisely directed in which 
requests carry the implication of commands and orders the 
necessity of obedience. 

The marvellous capacity for achievement under vigor- 
ous leadership and wholesome stimulation ought to be 
appreciated by teachers, school officers, and parents. 
Every department and classroom may be profitably ded- 
icated to the doctrine of hard work. The joy that goes 
with purposive employment is valid proof of the sound- 
ness of this suggestion. The school that fails to measure 
up to its possibilities as a working agency where all are 
stimulated to achieve their maximum, to live up to their 
optimum, is a pitiable, farcical failure as a social achieve- 

1 Paul Klapper, "Principles of Education," p. 132. 



368 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ment. The years of adolescence are too precious to be 
wasted in undervitalized teaching and characterless 
leadership. Those who see nothing from where they sit 
but the job and its perquisites, or who consume their 
energy in manipulating the details of a mechanical sys- 
tem, will do little that contributes to professional enjoy- 
ment and fruitful co-operation. The school at its highest 
and best exhibits in its management and teaching func- 
tion social aspects which are constantly shaping the ideals 
of boys and girls as they are influenced by solid contact 
with its institutional life. 

Social Significance of Classroom Activity. — One might 
with profit point out the social significance of learning 
processes. History, civics, economics, and sociology are 
obviously dealing in respect to content with human rela- 
tionships. From the pragmatic standpoint all subjects 
of the curriculum constitute a series of social problems. 
We do not set the pupil off and talk about his mental 
machinery. The courses of study have no meaning ex- 
cept in terms of the active agent — the pupil. By tracing 
out the history and pedigree of any problem we find it 
goes right back to some real social problems. There are 
no practical difficulties that resolve themselves into prob- 
lems of mere knowledge. The final court of appeal is 
value in a social world. 

The full account of classroom activity is not closed 
with a description of individual needs. The importance 
of each pupil as a member of a group gains significance 
in teaching method. The stimulations growing out of 
association constitute in a way the " clutch" by means of 
which the individual machinery is set in motion. The 
give-and-take process, the team work, the consideration 
of common problems, the striving together in common 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 369 

situations, evaluating results of observed efforts, check- 
ing, approving, holding up standards of attainment, ren- 
dering assistance in cases of need for guidance are illus- 
trations of the manifold ways in which a class exercise 
exhibits co-operative conduct. Such factors are essen- 
tial in the development of sympathetic relationships 
among pupils. The appreciation of another's problems 
and methods of attack promotes courtesy and good-will 
and furnishes a means for self-estimation and self-confi- 
dence. The ability to do a piece of work which meets 
approval gives assurance. Learning activities teem with 
situations calling for responses of a social character. The 
presentation of a finished product in either verbal or 
constructive categories commands attention and appre- 
ciation. It is the privilege of the artist teacher to see 
increasingly exhibited in her pupils the results of fine 
workmanship. To cultivate a disposition to do one's full 
share of work, not two thirds of an assignment nor an 
amount indicating half-hearted application; to create 
dissatisfaction with mediocre attainment; to stimulate 
participation in wholesome activities are worthy ends 
and must prove effective in developing men who can 
face full responsibility unhesitatingly. When scholarship 
loses respectability, when intellectual "hoboism" is tol- 
erated and condoned, when, in short, the activities of the 
classroom are secondary to other interests, it is time for 
searching examination. A school which fails to grip the 
intellectual forces fails utterly as a productive social 
centre. In the long run standards of scholarship, effec- 
tive teaching, and college ideals determine choice of 
higher institutions of learning. The moral sentiment of 
a school is a persistent force. In the extension of the 
functions of the school both externally and internally 



370 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

it should not be forgotten that the teaching function is 
focal. Its importance cannot be minimized save at the 
sacrifice of usefulness in other functions. 

Means of Establishing Organic Connection with Com- 
munity Life. — Opportunities for more objective forms of 
co-operative effort have been provided in the introduc- 
tion of courses in manual and household arts. Working 
out projects together, such as pieces of furniture for the 
school or the preparation of a dinner, where groups of 
pupils contribute each a definite part in the completed 
whole, is a kind of team work which suggests larger pos- 
sibilities. Producing useful things for the community 
as a part of school work might be included in constructive 
courses. High school pupils should be given an oppor- 
tunity to express their judgment in public affairs in a 
vital way. 

For example, in the selection of the style of architecture 
and furniture which are to be used in school buildings the 
judgment of pupils based on the results of choosing is a 
better guide than the usual adult methods employed. 
Lest this seem fanciful, take a concrete case. In a certain 
high school the walls and ceiling in the corridors had been 
tinted during the summer vacation. Inadvertently, a 
pleasing color was used. The wainscoting was left un- 
tinted. The pupils of the drawing department were 
given the opportunity to select a color for the unfinished 
surface. They made washes of color, working out by 
experimentation pleasing combinations. One hundred 
of these were submitted to the entire school. Out of 
more than a thousand judgments there was no doubt 
about the selection of a color scheme. The board of 
education carried out the expressed judgment of the 
pupils in detail. 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 371 

There are other means by which to lift the school out 
of isolation and establish organic connection with the con- 
crete affairs of the community. In Rochester, N. Y., 
the boys in the physics classes are given work by the 
city in wiring for electrical purposes. The high school 
of Kansas City, Kan., has developed a number of vital 
connections with the life of the city. The head of the 
department of chemistry was appointed city chemist 
two years ago and the work transferred to the high school. 
The pupils who had completed one year of chemistry 
creditably (in some exceptional cases one semester) were 
permitted to earn high school credit counting toward 
graduation by doing city work. Testing water for purity 
and bacterial content, running milk tests, keeping records 
and informing dairymen, work under the pure-food regu- 
lations, testing paving materials were some of the lines 
carried on by the high school boys. In this type of work 
there was no need for urging devotion to the preparation 
of lessons. 

In the same school pupils who carried music outside of 
school were given credit toward graduation. Means 
were devised for keeping account of progress made. 
The chief reliance was upon the pupil's own statement 
of her work. Those who desired credit for such activity 
became automatically members of the musical club of 
the school, which was directed by two members of the 
faculty who were interested in music. This club was 
given assembly privileges in furnishing programmes for 
the entire school. Pupils in the commercial department 
who had gained proficiency were assisted by the school 
in securing work, part time, in offices. Credit was al- 
lowed if the work was deemed educational. A few boys 
received recognition for work in banks in the keeping of 



372 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

accounts. One splendid young fellow in his second year 
had developed capacity for leadership in physical edu- 
cation. He was given credit for work in the evening with 
a group of men and boys in a rented hall. He succeeded 
in stimulating an interest in better physical life among 
this class and persuaded them to purchase a few pieces of 
apparatus for their hall. After two years of observation 
along these lines a large number of teachers and citizens 
are convinced that the high school may be made more 
useful in the civic and aesthetic life of the community. 

Grouping of Studies. — A comment in passing with re- 
gard to the organization of curricula seems warranted. 
The division of pupils into water-tight compartments 
within a school requiring a selection of a classical group- 
ing of subjects or a vocational grouping does not seem 
valid. The crucial choice of such large groupings, more 
or less inflexible in character, is made at a time when it 
is not clear what future developments of interests may 
reveal. The better plan is to provide a minimum re- 
quirement for all pupils and allow unit election about 
reduced centres, thereby making it possible for all pupils 
to elect, under disguised forms of adult guidance, courses 
which offer the best predictable types of training for each 
individual. The value of constructive courses has be- 
come so firmly established in our thinking that it is 
defensible to urge that all pupils be given a minimum 
training in this direction. There can be no doubt but 
that such distinctly objective training is a corrective to 
excessive devotion to learning in verbal categories. The 
practice which divides pupils into inflexible courses has a 
tendency to emphasize undesirable distinctions and not 
infrequently breaks up a teaching staff into opposing 
camps in which the strong partisan solicits openly or 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 373 

deviously pupils for his courses. The danger in this 
direction is reduced to an inconsequential minimum if 
certain other integrating forces aside from the general 
organization of the school for institutional purposes are 
wisely directed. 

Expressive Activities of School Life. — Those activities 
which are designed to give expression to school life are 
legitimate in their time and place and should be fostered 
and directed by teachers. Athletic events, literary and 
scientific societies, debating clubs, art and musical or- 
ganizations, orchestra, assembly exercises, receptions 
and parties, plays and publications, and all other enter- 
prises planned to give wholesome expression of the cor- 
porate life of pupils are genuinely worth while and call 
for balanced judgment and specialized skill in directing 
them in profitable ways. It is desirable that every pupil 
should be an active member of some school organization 
with clear emphasis upon the value of participating in the 
affairs of some consciously directed group. The recog- 
nition of adult supervision does not imply interference 
but regulation. The teacher who becomes sponsor for a 
particular group meets with success if she possesses tact, 
sympathy, and ability to plan. With these traits is 
needed genius in suggestion — stimulating in a subtle 
manner pupils to do the useful and fitting things as if 
their achievements were the results of their own self- 
directed life. 

The writing of a school play out of community sources, 
utilizing, for example, historical material gathered by 
pupils from records and conversation with old settlers, 
and the presentation of the production before the entire 
school and invited guests establish points of social con- 
tact in many directions. Members of the play, com- 



374 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

mittees, and cast of characters represent in their con- 
duct typical group activities of intrinsic value. Those 
who achieve distinction in dramatization gain the admi- 
ration of pupils and teachers. Excellence is contagious. 
To have the attention of the entire school centred upon 
one or more pupils as a result of any worthy achievement 
— literary, musical, athletic — has the effect of unifying 
divergent interests and of stimulating enthusiasm for the 
activities represented. 

The school assembly is an opportunity for the direction 
of the expressive side of school life. It is an occasion for 
setting up ideals and standards and for cultivating hab- 
its of social response. All interests are merged for the 
time being in these exercises. The appeal for better 
standards of scholarship and higher ideals of conduct, for 
the spirit of fair play and consideration in contests and 
games constitutes an important factor in the school as- 
sembly. The explicit process of "inculcating ideals" is 
in danger of being overworked. Good music, a sensible 
and dignified talk by a teacher or prominent citizen, a 
demonstration of some group of processes in manufac- 
turing are effective means which may be utilized in these 
common meetings. Large emphasis may profitably be 
given to the appearance of pupils before the school. An- 
nouncements concerning the meetings of school organi- 
zations might well be made by the proper officers. The 
presentation of the school paper, calling for support of 
athletics, giving information about any enterprise of 
school concern in which pupils are given responsibility 
for management, afford opportunities for practice in 
standing before a critical audience and making a clear 
and forcible statement of the issue or situation. The 
principal presides in such events and keeps a firm hand 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 375 

in directing affairs. The school orchestra, the various 
forms of literary efforts in debate and public speaking, 
the dramatization of plays worked up in the language 
department are appreciated by the school, and the recog- 
nition of pupils in these lines is a means of stimulating 
to further participation in such wholesome and useful 
activities. 

Interest and Group Activity. — Interest is the essential 
factor in self-directed group activity. The problem is to 
find out what motives are dominant. The direction of 
human energy into useful channels calls for exceptional 
ability in evaluating social situations. The small high 
school presents a totally different situation from that 
which arises in the large city high school. The details of 
organization for social opportunities are not identical 
in character in the six-teacher school of the town and the 
fifty-teacher school of the city and in neither case similar 
to the rural high school. In the smaller schools all pupils 
may be knit into a co-operative group in which the major 
emphasis may be placed on athletics during certain peri- 
ods of the year and at other periods on debating and 
declamatory contests. The diversity of interests in the 
city high school presents a nest of serious problems. 
Athletics becomes an acute problem of finance. The 
benefits derived from sports are limited to a few. The 
element of winning at any cost and the influence of the 
public in general foster attitudes which make it difficult 
to develop more genuinely serviceable physical education 
for all pupils. The harmful tendencies incident to the 
high school fraternity and other forms of club life which 
ape the worst features of adult practices are not found in 
the small school. Social solidarity develops normally 
out of team work in the latter. It is obvious that each 



376 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

type of school, in respect to numbers, presents peculiar 
difficulties in control. 

In general, however, it may be urged that there are 
common methods which may be utilized. For example, 
the standards set forth in the Rhodes' scholarship are 
valuable in any situation. The requirements for pro- 
ficiency in scholarship and athletics are worthy of atten- 
tion. Requirements III and IV are excellent material 
for boys to consider: " Qualities of manhood, devotion to 
duty, protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness, 
and fellowship" — "the exhibition during school-days of 
moral force of character and of instincts to lead, and to 
take an interest in his schoolmates ; for these latter attri- 
butes will be likely in after-life to guide him to esteem the 
performance of public duties as the highest aim." 

The keen interest which is so easily aroused in athletic 
events offers possibilities for new types of control and 
appeal. The brilliant athlete gains authority through 
achievement. That authority must be made responsi- 
ble by legitimizing school activities. Boys who excel as 
athletes should be made conscious of the responsibility 
which falls to them as representatives of their school. 
They should be worthy the esteem which is given them 
and led to regard the standards Mr. Rhodes has estab- 
lished. The direction of this important activity wisely 
is a mark of efficiency. 

Development of Capacity for Self -Direction. — The 
particular plan or method for cultivating initiative and 
developing self-directive capacity is secondary. The 
essential thing is to make provision for consecutive and 
progressive training and get pupils to work with enthu- 
siasm and purpose. Both instructional and expressive 
activities should be so organized and directed as to pro- 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 377 

vide abundant opportunities for self-activity. The dis- 
cussion of the best way to proceed in the cultivation of a 
sense of responsibility is clarified by contrasting adoles- 
cent and mature types of experience. Critical attitudes 
controlled by remote considerations are requisite in deal- 
ing productively with teaching method and institutional 
control. Teachers and principals are charged with re- 
sponsibility for the direction and control of all activities 
of the school. This responsibility cannot be safely dele- 
gated. One needs only observe how rapidly any school 
organization deteriorates by complete withdrawal of adult 
guidance and influence to be convinced of the validity 
of this view. Pupils engaged in wholesome and legiti- 
mate enterprises do not resent but welcome adult leader- 
ship. When selfish motives are dominant regulation is 
regarded as interference. The cry of personal liberty is 
heard when a sociaUy misdirected group is regulated by a 
higher authority than its own. All school organizations 
must receive their charters from responsible sources. 
One of the provisions usually included is that a teacher 
shall be chosen as adviser. Experience has demon- 
strated the necessity for close supervision. 

Student Self- Government. — There have been ambi- 
tious attempts to organize schools for self-government. 
The general agreement is that it requires a greater 
expenditure of energy to keep the school under control 
by this plan. The claim is that pupils derive benefits 
commensurate with the increased difficulties of manage- 
ment. It is not proposed to withdraw adult responsi- 
bility of teachers and principal. The machinery of gov- 
ernment is patterned after that of the city or State. 
Pupils are delegated legislative and executive authority. 
Officers and committees are chosen from among pupils 



378 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

and vested with powers to regulate the conduct of fellow 
pupils. The machinery of government receives elaborate 
attention. The principal reserves the right of final veto 
power. Whatever success the plan has met with is due 
to the extraordinary executive ability and diplomacy 
of the principal. With such a principal there is little 
doubt but that any other plan would prove equally 
effective. 

There is a modified form of pupil self-government in 
some schools. The term is applied to that method of 
control which is characterized by the absence of rules and 
regulations. A general statement is made to the effect 
that teachers and principal expect to meet boys and girls 
as gentlemen and ladies. The expectation is that all 
will do what is right and proper and in all cases respect 
the rights of others. There is a total absence of empha- 
sis on the machinery of government. Situations are met 
as they arise. 

The serious difficulty with pupil self-government prop- 
aganda is that a non-autonomous body is delegated leg- 
islative and executive authority. In a crisis the recall 
must be exercised. Sooner or later difficulties come and 
some properly constituted authority steps in and decides 
issues. Pupils soon lose confidence in the system. A 
new administration is embarrassed by a set of tendencies 
not altogether wholesome, whether the scheme is aban- 
doned or continued. A comparatively limited number of 
pupils derive benefits claimed for the plan in the perform- 
ance of official duties. 

There are other objections which may be suggested. 
Pupils are not interested in the institutional means which 
are utilized in the organization and management of the 
school. Interest is the key-note in self-directed cor- 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 379 

porate life. The advantages of a civic character have 
doubtful validity as a training for citizenship. 

The crucial point in the problem of self-government is 
to be found in the lack of a feeling of responsibility on 
the part of students in college or high school. When it is 
proposed to utilize the internal government of the school 
as a means by which to develop this trait one fails to see 
any hope of institutional stability. Students are not 
seriously concerned about the conduct of each other. At 
any rate they are unwilling to assume responsibility for 
directing the personal affairs of their neighbors in great 
detail. The feeling of assurance lies at the centre of a 
genuine sense of responsibility. This assurance comes 
out of a feeling of capacity to deal with a given situation. 
The student, certainly the high school pupil, has not 
developed a well-organized form of behavior which com- 
ports with the rights of others. Through participation in 
simpler types of school organizations, such as the literary 
and athletic clubs, this feeling of assurance may be de- 
veloped. It is the achievement of tangible results in 
doable parts of some enterprise that gains significance in 
the growth of self-control and self-confidence. An in- 
dividual who is required to draw upon an elaborate code 
of rules for the control of his conduct has difficulty in 
carrying his programme into effect. 

The choice of method in the government of a school 
is not limited to two mutually exclusive alternatives. 
Democracy as it exists at any moment is more than a re- 
flection of the popular mind. It embodies the accumu- 
lated experiences of many generations. "Society is not a 
thing that can be dry-docked for repairs." No form of 
government finds obedience more necessary than a 
democracy. Automatic obedience and the principle of 



380 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

democracy are never synonymous terms. The machinery 
of the State is utilized more and more in the control of 
the popular will. Effective social discipline is the re- 
sultant of many forces of which drill in obedience is an 
essential element. The mechanism of government grows 
more complicated with the development of social insti- 
tutions. More masterful methods of control are applied. 
The individual who is not good enough for society is 
operated on as a social safeguard as well as an individual 
corrective. It is not felt that in so doing the government 
is exercising despotic and arbitrary powers. In much the 
same light the discipline or government of the school and 
the school as an institution may be conceived. A sane 
and fruitful method of procedure would seem to lie 
clearly in the direction of explicit regulation of conduct 
through the exercise of regularly constituted authority. 
In the last analysis this conception obtains even in ex- 
treme types of pupil self-government. 

Each pupil should be recognized as an individual, not 
a mere unit in a school system. The old-fashioned 
methods of discipline with the mechanism of government 
consciously formulated emphasized the teacher as the 
exponent of authority. There was needless expenditure 
of energy in the enforcement of orders. The main issues 
of teaching were side-tracked. To transfer the means 
for directing the institutional life of the school to pupils, 
thereby building up elaborate systems for the regulation 
of conduct, meets with the same serious objections. At- 
tention is diverted again from the main issues of teaching. 
The machinery of government is brought into the centre 
of school life. The middle-ground position would aim to 
provide abundantly raw material for the exercise of grow- 
ing powers, to guide young people in productive organi- 



THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 381 

zation of experience, to engender enthusiasm for useful 
work. The organization and direction of institutional 
means with reference to prohibitions and restrictions 
will prove quite as disastrous as excessive devotion to 
" experience meetings and heart-to-heart talks" — a prac- 
tice which has been developing in recent attempts to work 
out a scheme of education in harmony with easy-going 
doctrines of interest and adjustment. 

School is life with a definite kind of self-directed ac- 
tivity in its own right; but school is also a preparation 
for a different type of life, a dominant characteristic of 
which is capacity to co-operate in the solution of the com- 
mon problems of society. Through varied contact with 
members of the school in directed activities each pupil 
should be given opportunity to measure his powers in 
terms of social sanctions, thereby gaining in time a keen 
sense of responsibility which implies a form of organized 
behavior comporting with the rights of others. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS IN 
SERVICE AS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE SO- 
CIAL ADMINISTRATION OF HIGH SCHOOLS 

Charles Hughes Johnston, Ph.D. 
editor and professor of secondary education, university of 

ILLINOIS 

The following natural subdivisions of our large general 
topic of improvement of teachers in service may be made : 

i. A reasonable schedule of professional reading for 
high school teachers. 

2. High school faculty meetings which count profes- 
sionally. 

3. Constructive supervision. (A problem primarily of 
the average teaching in the high school, assuming that 
every one knows pretty well how to detect very good or 
very bad teaching, and that the class supervisor in high 
schools must work professionally and co-operatively with 
those teachers who both can and must improve their 
technic, their fundamental methods, and their organiza- 
tion of subject-matter as well as their professional esprit 
de corps.) 

4. The policy of departmentalism and the assignment 
of groups of subjects to high school teachers — the correla- 
tion between the actual academic and professional train- 
ing of teachers and the subjects which they are teaching, 
and views and policies in operation indicating how de- 

382 



IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 383 

partmentalism in the high school administration of teach- 
ers and material of instruction differs from or is like that 
of the elementary school or of the college. 

5. Promotion of high school teachers and means of 
measuring merit. Factors (which might be arranged in 
order of their importance and marked by a percentage 
indication of value) which govern scales for promotion 
of high school teachers; and, if one should hazard a 
judgment, the ideal arrangement of these factors if he 
could remove existing obstacles to the adoption of an 
ideal scheme. 

6. Legitimate scientific investigations which may be 
undertaken by high school teachers. 

7. The civic and social equipment of the modern high 
school teacher — desirable and undesirable participation 
in the political and social life of the community. 

8. The common mistakes of new teachers and the 
amount and kind of classroom supervision required here. 

9. Certain miscellaneous suggestions for the improve- 
ment of teachers in service. 

a. Policy of requiring attendance at summer schools. 

b. Policy of having teachers attend some one or more 
educational meeting in the State. 

c. The " visiting day" for high school teachers. 

d. Provisions for year or part-year leave of absence. 
First. — What is a reasonable schedule of professional 

reading for high school teachers? A prominent State 
superintendent, not long ago, wishing to stimulate and 
also to test the reading habits of high school teachers, 
sent out a brief letter to five hundred high school teach- 
ers offering to send any one who replied and promised 
to return the volume (with seven one-cent stamps) — a 
notable book, just published, on secondary education. 



384 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

He received in all eight favorable replies. High school 
teachers do not read. They are not, as a class, pro- 
fessionally minded. Their work is not their religion, 
though in some cases their subject-matter may be. 

What large organization may be formed and what 
local devices and policies adopted whereby there may be 
reflected in our high school education the essential and 
peculiar influences and vitality which can come only 
from those choice teachers who have the reading habit, 
the contact with worthy conceptions, the stamina to 
master extended and serious monograph and book treat- 
ments of their own problems! There is not for high 
school teacher groups the adequate administrative ma- 
chinery for accomplishing this high aim ; and the problem 
is in large measure this one of administration, of organi- 
zation. There are needed high school reading circles as 
such. Here, as in other professional matters, these high 
school teachers have been overlooked and our efforts 
organized too exclusively for the elementary school teach- 
ers. 

The history of reading circles in many of the States is 
most interesting. They have gone up, become very 
prosperous, and gone down in the same State, dependent 
entirely upon the attitude of the State department of 
education and its friends and upon the leaders in sec- 
tional teachers' associations. Reading circles of high 
school teachers have never amounted to much yet. It 
seems, however, that while the numbers are small in pro- 
portion to the elementary school teachers, the kind and 
quality are such that a very considerable majority of 
them ought to be enrolled in a good reading circle planned 
on sane lines and with a definite programme. They 
would welcome such an organization. Publishers cannot 



IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 385 

accomplish this. Superintendents, high school principals, 
and teachers can accomplish, it; but in order to do so 
they have necessarily to enlist the active, energetic, and 
sympathetic support of the State superintendent, city 
and county superintendents, and others in authority. 
And not only that, but somebody with a keen head for 
organization must formulate a plan for creating a State- 
wide organization properly manned by an efficient board 
of directors. It will not do to acquiesce in the present 
tacit assumption that it will do to leave a high school 
reading circle in the hands of the same people who are 
selecting teachers' reading-circle books for elementary 
schools. Such teaching-circle boards are in a war all the 
time between one publisher and another over what books 
they shall select. By the time they get through choosing 
the elementary school teachers' books, they have lost all 
of their enthusiasm and they are very loath to concern 
themselves with high school books. 

The reading circles are greatly stimulated in the State 
of Virginia by the State board requirement regarding 
professional reading for teachers. There are no life cer- 
tificates, and the condition' for renewal of all certificates 
is the satisfactory completion of reading courses which are 
differentiated for elementary and high school teachers. 
There is a movement in Wisconsin now to reorganize the 
reading circles, which at present are administered with 
the county as the unit and only for rural school teachers. 
West Virginia has six thousand teachers read certain pre- 
scribed books, and the lists discriminate between books 
for elementary and for high school teachers. The differ- 
ent State examinations for certificates are based largely 
upon these different book lists. Something similar exists 
in a few other States, and there is a tendency to take 



386 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

more seriously the quality of the books and the fitness 
for the particular group of teachers for whom they are 
chosen. 

In addition to this larger and important State unit of 
organization planned for the advancement of the pro- 
fessional work of teachers in service there must be smaller 
and more compact and segregated local units for par- 
ticular sorts of work, and city units for a still more tech- 
nical, local, and at the same time more extended read- 
ing-and-study courses. 

An interesting effort along this line is the establish- 
ment at Rochester, N. Y., in the Municipal Building for 
the use of supervisors, principals, and teachers, of a pro- 
fessional library and reading-room. Books on psychol- 
ogy, history of education, educational administration, 
secondary education, and current educational bulletins 
and magazines are supplied. There is offered here also 
systematic advice as to definite and complete courses of 
professional (not recreational) reading. The library has 
now some fifteen hundred volumes and was opened for 
use in September, 191 2. Each year a carefully chosen 
committee of teachers suggests the best professional 
books on education which are to be added to the library. 
In this way all the teachers, superintendents, and prin- 
cipals will have tempting opportunities and tactful direc- 
tion for keeping in touch with the best professional 
educational thought and the most reliable educational 
investigations. There can be no doubt that the city is 
making here an investment in affording these intellectual 
conditions and this dignified professional environment — 
at least equally as important as the physical — all of 
which, in improved teacher spirit and service, will be 
returned manifold. 



IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 387 

Kansas City, Kans., has, in the room adjoining the 
principal's office, an alcove of books, which books are 
bought by the principal and the teachers in turn, ana- 
lyzed in high school teachers' meeting, and donated to 
this ''teachers' library." These high school teachers' 
meetings consider programme routine but also matters 
of broader policy and method. Each book has for all 
the teachers an invaluable constellation of associations 
about it from this intensive treatment given it. The 
library, though small, means something in terms of pro- 
fessional ideals and critical intellectual mastery. The 
selections here represent the best books and monographs 
there are on secondary education, and there is nothing 
which has not been used. It takes time and faith in the 
results of intellectual integrity to persevere to the finish 
in carrying through any sort of reasonable schedule of 
professional reading for high school teachers. It can be 
done, however, and something very fundamental to the 
best school work is sacrificed if it is neglected. A reason- 
able amount of reading for any high school teacher is a 
good book on her major subject and a good one on high 
school education, but this is the very minimum. 

Second. — High school faculty meetings which count 
professionally are rare. Many high school principals 
who are fine business managers, and can manipulate a 
variety of card catalogues and even devise and clerically 
keep up with complex systems of itemized records, have 
still found it impossible to make a high school teachers' 
meeting go. Some with such a discovery have decided 
that faculty meetings of high school teachers should be 
very infrequent and, when called, concerned with some 
unusual thing. Others have decided that these meetings 
should be called and dismissed with despatch, that noth- 



388 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ing should drag, as is so often now the case. These lat- 
ter, as do the former, seem to feel that the meetings can't 
be made interesting and can't be important except as a 
sort of clearing-house event for announcements, tempo- 
rary shifts in daily programmes, or attention to some 
unusual occurrence which requires abrupt modification of 
routine — in short, must deal only with mechanical ad- 
justments. But there is a class of high school principals 
who do seize upon the high school faculty organization as 
an organized body that exists partly to develop a corpo- 
rate professional spirit. Such a principal utilizes the fac- 
ulty deliberations and its contributions and judgments 
as a body on all matters involving broadly the general 
educational policies of the high school. Such issues, for 
example, as the present very critical schemes for different 
modes of articulation with lower and higher grades of ed- 
ucation (Chapter V), " Scientific Management" (Chap- 
ter IV), legal status, and other broad questions of in- 
stitutional relationships generally furnish occasions for 
serious and prolonged faculty meetings. 

In addition to such big questions, which should be dis- 
cussed co-operatively in a body of one's teachers, come 
still more urgently those near problems of administering 
curriculums, or, as they are wrongly called, " courses of 
study." 1 Here the average high school teacher is left in 
a maze. She has been deprived of this chance for prog- 
ress in curriculum thinking. Here, moreover, she has 
contributions to offer. 

Again, such meetings will sometimes have, as a body, 

to spend systematically hours in deliberation upon the 

fascinating but in many ways perilous extensions of the 

high school into new fields of economic, practical, moral, 

1 See "High School Education," Johnston and others, p. in. 



IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 389 

recreational, and other types of so-called " social service." 
For the cause of training teachers in service, high school 
teachers in faculty meetings, and probably in smaller 
groups carefully determined, must all be allowed to ap- 
preciate policies in operation, plans to be projected, and 
methods to be employed by the administration. They 
must also have the stimulus that comes from feeling that 
they can contribute, at least, to the temporary solutions 
of these questions. Even matters of the different sorts 
of pedagogical technic for the different subjects and the 
economic devices for classroom management, professional 
interchange of practice, convictions and conceptions of 
distinguishable educational values would be clarified and 
often modified by this professional interchange of points 
of view — and are well in order in the right sort of high 
school faculty meeting. 1 There are routine matters to be 
considered by the faculty, of course, but there should be 
large things also always under consideration, with capa- 
ble committees always at work upon them. Such real 
meetings require leadership. Neither the leader (the 
principal) nor teachers should take attendance and par- 
ticipation as a bore, nor as a matter of course, nor even 
as a duty. It should be a privilege. The proper con- 
ception on the part of the principal of the best prob- 
lems and method of attack, with a modicum of tact and 
professional enthusiasm, can make high school faculty 
meetings "count professionally. " 

Mr. J. Stanley Brown, whose high school at Joliet, 111., 
has many unique features, reports that he has found the 
faculty organization very effective and very responsive 
to invitations to co-operate in working out even those 

1 For elaboration of this view see "High School Education," Introduc- 
tion and Chapters I and II. 



390 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

technical, vital problems of school administration whose 
solution may require extensive and prolonged investiga- 
tion. Some of the successful discussions by this high 
school faculty have centred around the adequate and 
thoroughgoing reporting of the results of different round- 
table discussions at the sectional State teachers' associa- 
tions. Another topic, which eventuated after several 
thrashings over in faculty meetings in definite action, 
was that of the length of the school day, another that of 
the " helping teacher.'' Again, some teachers were dele- 
gated to visit the Gary, Ind., school system and to pro- 
pose for faculty deliberation any feature of this nation- 
ally interesting system which might be adapted to the 
educational conditions at Joliet. Mr. Brown, as will 
others, admits that some teachers seem bored, but on 
the whole that these meetings are quite as profitable as 
any of the more pretentious periodic gatherings of teach- 
ers into larger groups. He contends that most of the 
petty details should be eliminated from such meetings if 
they are to count professionally. His science teachers, 
as an example of typical problems requiring co-oper- 
ative study, proposed in faculty meeting that the 
daily schedule be so modified that all science work might 
be arranged for on the " two-consecutive-period " plan. 
They had to persuade the faculty, many of whom were 
at first opposed to the plan, to favorable action. Then, 
in turn, such readjustments, fought out on the basis of 
fundamental principles of school work as a whole, were 
proposed for algebra, arithmetic, bookkeeping, first-year 
German, and first-year Latin, those successfully advocat- 
ing such innovations in each case furnishing pertinent 
school data in support of their claim. 

The two-hour period, with time for "directed study," 
somewhat similar in principle to the plan advocated in 



IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 391 

Chapter XI, by graduated stages of faculty self-education 
by this genuine scientific procedure, thus evolved. The 
faculty is practically a unit now in indorsing the princi- 
ple for the above subjects, though some teachers in cer- 
tain subjects are still unconvinced. The natural pro- 
cedure at this stage, as Mr. Brown rightly contends, is to 
continue the investigation by securing data of every reli- 
able sort which eventually will discredit either the one- 
hour or the two-hour arrangement. When high school 
faculties generally, as a matter of course, attack such 
problems as these the programme for scientific procedure 
and intelligible principles and precedents in secondary 
education is definitely assured. 

Third. — The problem of constructive supervision. 
What is it? Some high school principals mean by super- 
vision the clerical and general managerial work of run- 
ning the physical plant and the schedule which, in turn, 
like a mill-wheel, runs the teaching force. This type of ad- 
ministrator tends to place small stress upon actual obser- 
vation, analysis, co-operative planning, and continuous 
systematic and periodic visitation of classroom teaching, 
and little also upon the after-conferences from these 
visits concerning the fundamental educational methods 
and aims of the teaching in question. With the present 
administrative policy and the numerous but unescapable 
clerical and other duties of administrators, classroom su- 
pervision still occupies a small part of the principal's total 
school day. The problem here seems to be one primarily 
of the average teaching in the high school. It may be 
safely assumed that every principal, unless he is hopeless 
himself, knows very well how to detect very bad or very 
good teaching. Real constructive supervision is that 
kind which provides ways and means of developing the 
average teacher out of her mediocrity. One of the great- 



392 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

est problems for the immediate future of the high school 
is that of developing those qualities of classroom super- 
vision and the consequent personal conferences known 
as " follow-up methods," all of which bring about condi- 
tions favorable to the principal's working professionally 
and co-operatively with these average teachers. This 
large group, if conditions are made right, both can and 
must improve their technic, their fundamental methods, 
and the organization into clear instruction units of their 
subject-matter in the different courses. 

The following quotation from the report of a recent 
survey of Boise City schools is suggestive of one way in 
which co-operative effort may develop a favorable con- 
dition for a high type of supervision — a sort of corporate 
professional spirit which would soon run of. its own 
momentum: 

The work of the supervisory staff might to advantage be 
developed along three lines. First, in addition to the present 
irregular exhibits of the work of pupils, there should be provided 
a continuing, but constantly changing, exhibit of the various 
phases of school work in order that the best results accomplished 
in the system may be made constantly available for all the 
teachers. Such an exhibit would consist of the following types 
of materials: Written work of pupils, examples of the work in 
drawing, suggestions for supplementary reading for pupils and 
teachers, collections of illustrative material found valuable in 
classroom teaching, examples of constructive work, whether in 
paper, wood, clay, or other medium, teachers' plans which have 
been successfully carried out, and the like. In addition to the 
work done by the supervisors in demonstrating methods of 
work, it would seem advantageous to call upon the teachers who 
are doing superior work to demonstrate to their colleagues by 
actually teaching their classes under observation. 

Investigation doubtless would show a wide difference 
between what may be estimated as the' average daily 






IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 393 

time actually spent in classroom supervision and the rel- 
ative amount of time for such work an ideal distribution 
would call for. Even on this latter ideal basis, however, 
wide divergence of opinion would be found. In theory 
the all-important work of a principal is supervising and 
directing the educating of pupils. Most other adminis- 
trative duties of the principal should be subordinated to 
this end. It is for this that the principal should be freed 
from the numerous and exacting clerical and adminis- 
trative duties whenever possible. In order to be a factor 
in the elimination of non-essentials and in vitalizing 
methods, some one must be supplied, even if it be a 
teacher or a substitute teacher, to assist the principal in 
the mere routine. Rochester follows this plan through- 
out the whole system. Some classrooms in all schools 
are really working out contributions, others are as surely 
needing them. The principal, or the superintendent in 
the smaller systems, is the only central authority, by 
virtue of his close and constant contact with teacher, 
student, and parent, to find the weaknesses, collect the 
special contributions, and disseminate the proper ideals 
throughout the whole system. The following chart illus- 
trates the practical judgment of schoolmen on the ques- 
tion of the actual and the ideal distribution of the princi- 
pal's day, with particular reference to the possible time 
which might reasonably be given to supervision of teach- 
ing. When the high school principal evolves into the 
social administrator, as Perry in Chapter XXI of this 
book shows he is now rapidly doing, a readjustment of 
duties for his professional day and a consequent reappor- 
tionment of his time will come. Very likely one of the 
changes will be in the direction indicated on the accom- 
panying chart. 



394 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 







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IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 395 

Fourth. — As to departmental policy and the idea and 
general educational principles behind the present prac- 
tice of assigning work and subjects to teachers, there is 
no well-developed policy and there have been formulated 
no clear educational principles. — When high school "de- 
partmentalism" is spoken of the term is used as it ap- 
plies in college and university administration. Units of 
credit, college-entrance requirements, elective and pre- 
scribed courses, majors and minors are discussed in terms 
of college departmentalism. The assumption is that 
high school work must be administered more or less as 
college work is. On the other hand, when secondary 
education is thought of as a work for students rather 
than, as above, in the interests primarily of logical divi- 
sions of subject-matter, the tendency is to assume that 
there is little or no differentiation of subject-matter at 
all, that there are only intercorrelated not differentiated 
and co-ordinated courses. The thinking is in terms of 
the educational principles governing the making of the 
elementary curriculum; that is, curriculum and adminis- 
trative thinking about secondary education is done in 
terms either of the college or of the elementary school — ■ 
rarely explicitly with reference to the secondary as some- 
thing peculiar unto itself. With respect to some of these 
problems, practice parallels theory. High school prin- 
ciples administer as is done in elementary education ; pro- 
scribe, promote, and graduate as colleges do. 

The real problem here is with the desirable correlation 
of the actual academic and professional training of teach- 
ers and the subjects they are teaching. The second as- 
pect of this problem should be, in the discussion to follow, 
at any rate, the departmentalism policies now in opera- 
tion in different systems of high school administration 



396 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

which indicate the respects in which the preparation of 
teachers and the grouping of subjects for teachers seem 
to show how high school departmentalism must differ 
from and the respect in which it must be like either that 
of the elementary school or that of the college. The high 
school's problem here is different from that of either of 
the other institutions, and this is an urgent problem of 
administration bearing directly upon effectiveness and 
progress of teachers in service. If a teacher's teaching 
assets are not utilized they are lost to the profession. 
Tables and charts in Chapter IV illustrate for one State 
the condition which, without such large scale analysis, 
is not so keenly realized. It is a condition and general 
practice which militates against the progress of teachers 
in service. 

Fifth. — Promotion of high school teachers and means 
of measuring merit. No permanent progress may be 
effected in teachers generally unless just, systematic, and 
intelligible treatment be assured them in the way of 
tenure and promotion in rank and salary. 

Once all assumed a teacher was efficient or a type of 
education efficient if no one successfully disproved this 
common claim of efficiency. To-day all are tending to 
hold judgments in reserve regarding either a school sys- 
tem or an individual teacher until it or she can meet cer- 
tain definite standards of efficiency. The "born not 
made" characterization of a good teacher, instead of in- 
suring the impossibility of measuring this perplexing per- 
sonal factor in teaching, virtually means, on the contrary, 
that certain recognizable types of personality are, among 
other things, essential in the profession of teaching. 

The first natural step toward determining teaching 
essentials and listing these in a hierarchy would be to 



IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 397 

select a group of "best teachers," as judged by practical 
standards, and then analyze and define the teaching 
qualities which stand out for the group. Perhaps the 
next differentiation of desirable qualities might be the 
distinguishing of native qualities and of acquired quali- 
ties. At present we have more definite standards of 
qualification for the acquired qualities than for the na- 
tive. The next step is to devise a complete scale, or 
graduated schedule, for these groups of qualities. E. C. 
Elliott, of the University of Wisconsin, has developed 
such a schedule of the following items, with percentage 
values calculated for each: 

Physical efficiency (health, voice, endurance, etc.), 80 
points out of 1,000; moral or native efficiency (self- 
control, optimism, sympathy, tact, judgment, etc.), 100 
points; administrative efficiency (promptness, economy, 
co-operation, etc.) , 80 points ; dynamic efficiency (scholar- 
ship, professional training, classroom skill, etc.), 160 
points; projected efficiency (continued professional study, 
travel, reading, etc.), 50 points; achieved efficiency (by 
tests of achievement), 250 points; social efficiency (cul- 
tural, civic, social intra and extra mural work), 80 points; 
directive or supervisory efficiency, 200 points. 

Many school administrators have adopted in a rough 
way some sort of schematic method of analyzing and 
evaluating the different factors of successful teaching. 
Many of these are reported in the late 191 2-13 issues of 
The Educational Review. The following letter of Superin- 
tendent Clement is an example in point: 

I am enthusiastic over results secured from an experimental 
application of Doctor Elliott's plan of measurement. Fifty per 
cent of our teachers did summer-school work this past year. I 
attribute the interest in this direction largely to a systematic 



398 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

study of a definite plan of measurement. The teachers were 
made conscious of certain inefficiencies as much through self- 
examination as through direct or constructive criticism on the 
part of the supervisor. In other words, this scheme of mea- 
surement served pretty largely as a mirror for each individual 
teacher. In my article I have discussed a number of the current 
objections offered to such a scheme. 

I may say that I am always frank in telling the teachers under 
my supervision that I am constantly looking for the best- 
equipped teachers that we are able to secure. No teacher is 
ever dropped from our list without a fair consideration. If it 
is evident, beyond all doubt, that a teacher is inefficient in her 
work and she does not make an effort to remedy the weakness, 
she, of course, is given very little consideration for a re-election. 
In the use of a scheme of measurement I think it essential to 
allow real facts to enter into our judgments. Prejudice and su- 
perficial complaints must not be determining elements. 

The following paragraphs from different high school 
teachers who have worked under such a scale suggest 
its practicability: 

I would say I believe the scheme is not only feasible but 
desirable. I think the conscientious teacher is not embarrassed 
by having the points in which she is to be judged put before her, 
that rather this knowledge helps her to measure herself and by 
having some definite standard of measurement to discover weak 
points in herself and her work which she might otherwise over- 
look. 

Instead of making the teacher feel that the supervisor is an 
autocrat, to my mind it makes her feel that he is a just judge in 
that he puts into her hands his rule of measurement and permits 
her to feel that she has an opportunity to bring herself up to his 
standard. 

The supervisor who applies this scheme as it is undoubtedly 
intended to be applied will find that his teachers look upon him 
as a friend who is endeavoring to help them to reach the highest 
standards of efficiency. 

Personally nothing which has been presented to me in years 



IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 399 

has given me more food for thought and more desire to improve 
myself and my work than this scheme. 

I firmly believe that only after this scheme has been in actual 
use for a number of years will we be able to appreciate fully its 
real worth and value. 

I do not think that any individual who is public-spirited 
enough to be a real teacher would be embarrassed or made too 
conscious of the particulars in which she is to be judged or 
measured. 

I place a very high estimate upon its value, not only to the 
teacher but reaching out beyond her to the school. I believe 
that the scheme is in every respect a feasible one. 

After numerous pioneer exploitations such as these 
have been recorded, and after some scientific collections 
and interpretations of those varied and measurably suc- 
cessful schemes have been made, it is certain that a defi- 
nite schedule of measuring teachers and of promoting 
them on such a basis will come about. Vagueness of re- 
quirement in school administration always means neg- 
lect, whereas requirements which are met are always defi- 
nite requirements. Such definite so-called scales to 
measure the fruits of teaching are devised, subject to ex- 
tensive modifications still, for distinguishable abilities or 
efficiency and for progress in arithmetic, handwriting, 
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to the neglect of the more delicately-to-be-conceived 
standards for subtler aspects of the work. To over- 
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400 



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402 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ardize or to place relative emphasis upon those factors 
of judgment, enthusiasm, intellectual honesty, social 
efficiency, moral and religious wholesomeness, produc- 
tive imagination, aesthetic discrimination, and the like, is 
merely in another way to mechanize routine and deceive 
oneself into thinking his a scientific sort of teaching. 

The Ohio Survey card for "rating" high school 
teachers, reprinted on the preceding pages, seems to 
be thoroughgoing and illustrative of the principle here 
advocated. 

Classifications of Teachers. — A superintendent re- 
cently classified his teachers as follows, largely with refer- 
ence to the point here under discussion: 

There are about five classes of teachers in their attitude to- 
ward criticism: (i) those who are dull and do not seem to realize 
the force of the criticism, (2) those who understand but are 
indifferent and do not care, (3) those who begin to weep and wish 
to hand in their resignations at once, (4) those who flare up and 
state that they have known all along that the superintendent had 
it in for them and was unwilling to give them a square deal, and 
(5) those who take the suggestions kindly and immediately set 
about to improve along the lines criticised. 

One can easily judge which class of teachers makes 
the social administration of the high school possible. It 
should be added that the supervisor's duty, partly, at 
least, is to increase the last-named class by reducing 
the others — and not simply by giving up this kind of 
supervision altogether. 

Another classification from a different and more pro- 
fessional point of view is the following : 

Teachers in actual service and more or less in need of after- 
training may be considered in groups which, omitting minor dif- 
ferences, are somewhat as follows: 



IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 403 

i. Superior teachers who need no stimulation other than 
their own ideals of excellence. By the fine standard of work 
which they maintain and by their student-like habits they might, 
under favorable conditions, set the pace for the less efficient. 
With this group, supervision is chiefly concerned in gaining their 
co-operation in working out problems and in making their skill 
serviceable to other teachers. 

2. Teachers possessing a good degree of executive ability and 
adequate scholarship of the book-learning variety, who resist 
change because they honestly believe the old ways are better. 
They are patriotic defenders of the views and traditions and 
practices in which they were reared. The greater number of 
these will as strongly support the new when fully convinced of 
its advantages; but in the absence of positive orders they resist 
proposed changes until absolutely conclusive demonstration is 
furnished in a concrete way. Supervision must confidently ac- 
cept these conditions and furnish the demonstration. 

3. Teachers lacking adequate scholarship or practical skill, 
or both; self-conscious and timid because unacquainted with 
standards of work and valid guiding principles; desirous of avoid- 
ing observation; doing their work in a more or less perfunctory 
and fortuitous way. Supervision needs to give these teachers 
courage by an exhibition of standards plainly within their reach 
and by personal work in their own schoolrooms. 

4. Teachers lacking adequate scholarship or practical skill, 
or both, but not conscious of this lack and therefore unaware 
of any need of assistance. Some form of positive direction is 
here necessary in the first stages of supervision. 

5. Teachers yet in the early years of their service. They 
have, as a rule, had some professional training, and from it they 
have gained one thing at least of value beyond all else — namely, 
a professional attitude toward the work of teaching. Super- 
vision should be able to concern itself chiefly in keeping these 
teachers in Class 1 so far as their professional attitude is con- 
cerned. There will, of course, always be a difference among 
them in scholarship and personal power, but all should have 
guidance in kind and quantity adapted to prevent any of them, 
even the weakest, from developing the characteristics of Class 2, 
Class 3, or Class 4. If these new recruits are to be able to lead 
children to be open-minded, to hold opinions tentatively, to be 



404 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

sure but not too sure, to be willing to give both sides of a ques- 
tion a hearing before reaching a final conclusion, they must keep 
themselves open-minded. To aid them in doing this, super- 
vision will keep itself free from dogmatism even in dealing with 
the youngest teachers. 

Sixth.— Scientific investigations by high school teach- 
ers. Professor George Herbert Palmer, senior philoso- 
pher of Harvard, said he voted for the establishment of a 
graduate school at Harvard, when graduate schools were 
ventures in America, not for the sake of the graduate 
student but for the sake of the undergraduate, not in the 
interests of research for the professor but in the interests 
of the research professor's teaching of undergraduates. 
A person without a problem cannot teach. In this way, 
on general principles, doubtless it is safe to advocate in- 
vestigations by high school teachers. This is becoming 
common in the graduate work of summer schools and 
in the absentia work, notably such as that done by high 
school teachers under the direction of the University of 
Wisconsin. There are many problems which require co- 
operative solution by groups of teachers, the principal, 
if he is capable and a master of the method of getting 
results worth interpretation, leading and directing the 
work. Such questions as individual differences and some 
systems of recording these on individual cards which 
would make the records essential to better administra- 
tion of the school might well occupy a large portion of 
the faculty of any number of schools for a year or more 
and lead the teachers into exploring fields of educational 
psychology, of physical and mental tests, of statistical 
method, of school administration, and of many others. 
The marking system or the problem of scales of credit 
for quality in high school work leads one into equally 



IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 405 

alluring and limitless fields. Numerous other fields are 
just as full of problems. The co-operative effort at de- 
termining even roughly some reasonable standards of 
accomplishment for some or any of the courses in the 
high school, or the comparative study of distinguishable 
methods of teaching some subject like beginning geome- 
try, by sectioning classes on some fair basis, would quite 
likely rejuvenate the whole teaching and speculative 
spirit of a school. Or, if local problems are not easily 
conceived, some schools could get into communication 
with the permanent committee on the reorganization of 
Secondary Education of the National Education Asso- 
ciation. This important committee has ten active sub- 
committees of experts projecting a most fascinating pro- 
gramme for investigations concerned with problems not 
in any case foreign to the every-day experience of high 
school teachers generally. The problems and methods 
of investigation are given in some detail. 

Seventh. — Civic and social equipment of the modern 
high school teacher. Judge Ben Lindsey thinks there is 
"a sad need of some practical system of instruction in the 
principles of justice; not necessarily, nor at all, those 
advocated by any particular party." "I believe," says 
he, " that there should be some more practical instruction 
in politics, the meaning of politics, and the necessity of 
an interest in politics, in order to bring about social and 
industrial justice in civic, municipal, and national affairs. 
I believe this could be done (in the schools) without 
being offensive to any faction or party." The whole 
problem is, What is the legitimate field of activity of high 
school teachers as public servants? What must be their 
abilities in the way of enlightenment and training of the 
genuine civic and political insights which must be pro- 



406 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

vided for high school students before graduation? In 
addition to the layman's suggestion above and to the 
need for the school's co-operation with various home 
and school associations, there should come frequently 
from school administrators candid counsel and clear ad- 
monition to the ranks of high school teachers as to how- 
to become real citizens, to get outside the traditional 
academic confines, to have views and to stand for im- 
portant convictions on local, municipal, county, State, 
social, moral, and broadly national issues. Cattell con- 
cludes a recent lengthy arraignment of our public schools 
thus: "The influence of our half million teachers on the 
problems of democracy and civilization is entirely in- 
significant." This is untrue and unjust, but it is well 
for all teachers to admit that a personal embodiment of 
modern citizenship qualities in such a way as to weave 
them into the daily instruction and to inculcate such 
principles into the school organizations of the student 
body is a fine teaching asset and will make for progress 
of teachers in service. The most effective organizations 
through which parents and teachers may co-operate in 
inculcating those common civic principles and in form- 
ing genuine civic consciences in high school students 
have not yet, perhaps, been adopted or even conceived 
anywhere. It is, however, distinctly and specifically 
written down in the immediate future programme for 
high school extension and has been dealt with exten- 
sively in Chapters XII and XIII of this book. 

Eighth. — Common mistakes of new teachers and 
amount and kind of supervision of class work required. 
It is a common saying of schoolmen that raw high school 
teachers must, under present conditions, do their unsu- 
pervised teaching on high school students for a year or 



IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 407 

more somewhere. Some supply this by requiring the 
practice to be done in the city grades; others in some 
smaller and more helpless high school ; others still provide 
for it — New York, Rochester, St. Paul, for examples — 
by assigning such persons to the substitute positions and 
requiring an apprenticeship of a year or two under expert 
supervising critic teachers who at other times, also, 
demonstrate good teaching to these same apprentices. 
The survey report of Boise City above quoted suggests 
that those teachers doing superior work, in some subject 
and by some method with novel features, conduct at 
times for younger teachers a demonstration lesson and 
follow this by discussions of the method employed. The 
committee thinks this plan, tactfully handled, offers one 
of the best means available for improving teachers in 
service. The Michigan Association of School Superin- 
tendents recently appointed a committee to investigate 
the situation with reference to this yearly crop of raw 
high school teachers in that State. The committee's re- 
port, the product of a year's investigation, later adopted 
and printed, in substance said that raw high school teach- 
ers persisted for the greater part of their first year in 
trying out university methods of teaching and organi- 
zation of subject-matter in high schools, and that the 
State high schools needed, if it could be supplied, a 
teacher-training institution where this crudeness in work 
might be allowed less harmfully to wear away and where 
the chief aim might be to help such people, under con- 
trolled conditions, to anticipate the real teaching condi- 
tions of high schools. The general agreement is that 
inexperienced teachers require the great proportion of 
co-operative classroom supervision, that the work for 
first-year students requires a large amount of super- 



408 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

visory attention, and that the first month of the first 
year for those students is the most critical period. The 
larger aspects of this topic have been briefly outlined in 
the discussion above of " Constructive Supervision." 

Ninth. — Miscellaneous plans for improvement of 
teachers in service. There seems to be a general feeling 
that teachers should be urged to attend summer schools. 
In most cases this doubtless works well — doubtless in all 
except those when such study reduces the necessary 
physical vitality of the teacher. Some cities lay no stress 
upon summer schools nor any other effort at professional 
development by teachers. What they lose in service 
is immeasurable. Others practically require summer- 
school attendance without any tangible reimbursement. 
This is a hardship on teachers. Others in increasing 
numbers promote teachers largely on the basis of credits 
in professional study of education or in their particular 
academic branches. Still other city boards of education 
with more foresight — as Pittsburgh or Rochester again — 
pay definite sums of money in cash reimbursements for 
such outlay and such indication of professional integrity 
of purpose. Several other cities encourage teachers to 
take leaves of absence for a year for purposes of study, 
with assurance of re-election, some even with no re-elec- 
tion necessary, but without pay. Boston, Cambridge, 
Rochester, and a few other cities, our most advanced 
group in this respect, have made provision by which 
teachers may be granted leaves of absence on half pay 
for study and travel. No other means of professional 
growth can be compared with this one for those who 
can take advantage of it. The summer-school expense 
allowance or, in other cases, assurance of promotion, the 
consideration for credits gained in extension or correspon- 



IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS 409 

dence courses, even the expenses and day off for " visiting- 
day" when this becomes an educational arrangement 
with systematic supervisory features, and also the atten- 
dance without salary reduction at sectional teachers' 
meetings — all indicate hopeful signs of appreciation of 
the necessity of continual and carefully planned means 
for securing the improvement of teachers in service. 
There is no danger of going backward on any of these 
measures. The forward movement has gone too slowly 
for reactions. Educational advance in this particular 
is, however, now in an era when there is general recog- 
nition, by laymen as well as by school administrators, to 
quote a prominent city superintendent, "that prepara- 
tion in a professional school for teachers, experience pre- 
liminary to permanent appointment, continuous train- 
ing during service as a permanently appointed teacher 
are all so vital to the school system as to prompt, when 
fully appreciated, the most liberal provisions possible for 
securing the training desired." 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SOCIAL ACTIVITIES OF 
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS 

Jesse B. Davis, A.M. 

PRINCIPAL OF THE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL AND DIRECTOR OF VOCATIONAL 
GUIDANCE, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. 

Attitude of the Administrative Body. — In the "good 
old days," so often mentioned by the critics of modern 
education, the entire aim of the school was to develop 
the intellect to its highest powers, regardless of the 
physical or social needs of the individual. This was a 
natural aim, and, in its own time, it was not so harmful as 
would now appear. The physical needs of the pupil 
were well cared for by the labor that was required about 
the farm and the house ; and as for his social needs, there 
were few. The population was scattered. Many of the 
social attractions or distractions of to-day were unknown. 
Organization, co-operation, and combination in business 
had not yet appeared, so that those who attended the 
high school or academy were the select few who were 
preparing for the learned professions. Social activities 
among students were, in the modern sense, also unknown. 
The so-called "student pranks" were the only evidence 
of a breaking out of social impulses, and these were elim- 
inated by severely punishing the culprits whenever they 
could be caught. 

410 



ADMINISTRATION OF SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 411 

A Period of Toleration. — -During the last two decades 
of secondary education the growth of the high school 
has been phenomenal. With this growth came a broad- 
ening of purpose, a more cosmopolitan body of students, 
and an imitation of the social life of the college and of the 
community in which the school was located. This era 
brought many perplexing problems to the administra- 
tion of the school. Athletics took form in interschoiastic 
contests that gave rise to many evil conditions that for 
a time baffled all attempts at control. Secret societies 
nourished because it was only through them that stu- 
dents might indulge in social entertainment. Principals 
and teachers ignored the opportunity to enter into these 
social functions, and when they found it impossible to 
crush them they simply allowed them to exist as a tol- 
erated evil. 

Attempted Restriction of Privilege. — In many cities 
the social problem arising in certain high schools became 
notorious. Drastic rules were passed by school boards. 
Principals used their utmost power and ingenuity to curb 
the power of the secret societies. State laws were passed 
prohibiting secret societies in high schools, and cases were 
tried in the courts to little avail. This attempt to restrict 
the social impulses and advantages of pupils of high 
school age was a failure, because it was unnatural, illog- 
ical, and unsympathetic. It was too clearly interfering 
with the rights and privileges of socially endowed human 
beings. The problem was attacked from the wrong 
direction. 

Results of Past Neglect. — The results of attempt- 
ing either to prohibit social activities among pupils or to 
restrict them by legislation were evident in the after- 
lives of the pupils. Those who entered from homes with- 



412 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

out social advantages were turned out as socially deficient 
as when they entered. Those who had outside opportu- 
nities for social development were fortunate, but they 
could not exercise their powers legitimately within the 
school except in very limited ways. The faithful book- 
worm, who upon his graduation was proclaimed vale- 
dictorian of his class, too often proved to be a failure 
in the world outside. On the other hand, and to the sur- 
prise and chagrin of his instructors, the boy who was the 
leader of every scheme of outlawry and the plotter of 
every prank during his school career, and who may have 
been expelled from school because of his ability to lead 
others into mischief, became a great and successful or- 
ganizer and leader of men in the field of business. Both 
the narrowly developed valedictorian and the outlaw 
were cheated out of a part of their rightful education. 
The social nature of the one should have been drawn out 
so that he might have become socially efficient, and the 
crude powers of the other should have been trained co- 
ordinately with his intellectual attainment. 

Training for Social Efficiency. — It is only within the 
last few years that the obligation resting upon the school 
authorities to meet the demand for socially efficient 
graduates has been appreciated. After much discussion 
and investigation of the evil conditions resulting from 
undirected social activities, teachers have found that the 
fundamental difficulties were not in the school societies 
themselves. They have found that the evil conditions 
arose because the faculties of our high schools did not 
guide and train those immature boys and girls in the 
proper conduct of their social activities. Schoolmen 
deliberately ignored the opportunity that was being 
forced upon them to use these very organizations as a 



ADMINISTRATION OF SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 413 

training school in social efficiency. Wherever these evil 
conditions have been successfully eliminated from the 
student life of the high school, it has been accomplished 
by substituting better activities for the old and by the 
co-operation of sympathetic members of the faculty with 
the students who worked with them upon the same plane 
and who led them, with better methods, to more suc- 
cessful achievements. Some progressive principals have 
undertaken systematically to organize all forms of social 
activities among students so that the benefits of the social 
training to be obtained will be open to the largest possi- 
ble number. Those pupils showing powers of initiative, 
qualities of leadership, and executive ability have been 
given opportunity to develop these traits along with their 
scholastic attainments, to the advantage of the social life 
of the school, to the support of the school administration, 
and to their own social improvement. This is quite gen- 
erally the attitude of school authorities to-day. Those 
who have held back or hesitated have been waiting to see 
the results of the experiments of others and to be shown 
the way. 

Problems of Reformation; Traditions. — Every high 
school principal or teacher who attempts to work reform 
in the social life of a school is bound to meet with serious 
difficulties and possibly with opposition. School tra- 
ditions are very tenacious. Students are loath to depart 
in any particular from historic social custom or prac- 
tice except to excel the achievements of former gen- 
erations. In some schools the modern principal will 
meet with an inheritance from former administrations 
that will make it difficult for him to Obtain the good- 
will and confidence of the student body. If the at- 
titude of the faculty in past years has been one of 



414 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

opposition to student activities, if the principal has spent 
his time in police and detective work to catch those who 
disobey his unreasonable rules, if every pupil has been 
looked upon as a natural enemy to authority and has 
been treated with suspicion regarding his motives and 
acts, then the reformer has much to live down or to over- 
come before he can begin his socializing work. 

Social Democracy. — One of the chief objections to the 
fraternity system was its artificial aristocracy, its exclu- 
siveness, and its general undemocratic tendency. This 
same tendency is bound to appear in any social group. 
The leader of social activities among boys and girls every- 
where has to battle with this problem of human nature. 
Can you find about you any such thing as real social 
democracy? If you cannot find it in neighborhoods, in 
communities, or even in churches, can you expect to find 
it among high school boys and girls who are but imitators 
of those around them? We are all more or less guilty of 
a certain amount of exclusiveness. We are just a little 
particular with whom we associate intimately, and we are 
anxious to guard our children in the same way. The 
high school of to-day is a cosmopolitan community in 
itself. The pupils come from all parts of the district, 
from all kinds of homes and environments. There are 
many nationalities and many widely differing types. 
Their habits, desires, tastes, and characters are of vary- 
ing kinds. Is it possible or is it desirable to insist upon 
a programme of so-called social democracy that will com- 
pel every social organization to open its membership to 
include any who may see fit to demand entrance? This 
question is put to arouse thought and not to force an 
affirmative or negative answer. There is a real problem 
here that every leader of young people has to meet and 
to answer as best he is able. 



ADMINISTRATION OF SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 415 

Conduct of Social Functions. — Closely related to the 
problem of democratic membership in school organiza- 
tions is the proper conduct of the social functions given 
by any society or by the school. The question of 
dancing is still a troublesome one in certain localities. 
When there is no great objection to permitting dancing 
in a school building, there is the ever-present question of 
propriety. Questionable forms of dancing must be prohib- 
ited. The ordinary formalities of social occasions must 
be insisted upon. The invitation lists must be supervised 
so that the names of some who may be morally objection- 
able shall be omitted. Moreover, suitable games and 
entertainment must be provided for those who do not 
dance, and these young people must be made to feel that 
there is a place for them as well as for those who do 
dance. Each party or social occasion will present its 
peculiar problems to the leader who is trying to direct 
the school functions in a manner that will prove of edu- 
cational value to all of those participating. 

Efficient Leadership. — Not all teachers are adapted to 
the work of directing social activities among students. 
Some are lacking in tact, in sympathy, in social interest, 
or in personality, so that it is impossible for them to do 
successful leading. Still other teachers have not yet been 
convinced that it is their duty or any part of their func- 
tion to do what they call this " outside" work. How- 
ever, in every school there are a few teachers who are 
known among the pupils as their friends, and who have 
the faculty of getting down into the lives of the boys and 
girls so that they will come to them in perfect confidence. 
These teachers are valued not only by the pupils but are 
appreciated by the principals and loved by the commu- 
nity. This is the type of teacher that is needed in the 
direction of student activities. Certain activities require 



416 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the direction of experts, as music, dramatics, and ath- 
letics. Schools that have teachers in charge of such de- 
partments are usually well equipped for leadership in 
these particular lines. The high school teacher of the 
future must be conscious of his social mission. He or 
she must see this great opportunity to mould boys and 
girls into well-rounded social beings prepared to live 
efficient and useful lives as members of a community. 
When schools are equipped with such teachers, the most 
difficult problem in connection with reform in the social 
activities of high school students will have been solved. 

A Suggested Plan of Administration.- — Every principal 
who attempts to organize or reorganize the social life of 
a school must use a great deal of diplomacy. He will 
rarely succeed if he attempts to force any cut-and-dried 
programme upon either his pupils or his teachers. He 
must begin with the situation as it is in his particular 
school. Local traditions, customs, ideals, and personali- 
ties must be carefully understood and considered. One 
step at a time as opportunity offers will eventually lead 
up to a complete ideal. A plan that will work success- 
fully in one school may not be good in another. How- 
ever, suggestions are helpful, and for this reason the 
following plan that is the culmination of experiences in 
different schools is offered. 

Advisory Boards. — As has been mentioned before, the 
failure of the fraternity system in the high school was 
largely, if not entirely, due to the fact that it was not 
guided or directed into right paths. All other social 
activities are in the same danger if they are not wisely 
supervised. For this reason every society that receives 
recognition should have its " advisory" board. The 
word " advisory" is used rather than "control" or any 



ADMINISTRATION OF SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 417 

other word, because it is intended that the board shall act 
in just that capacity. The board should consist of two 
teachers who are chosen by the pupils and approved by 
the principal, and of two or more students, including the 
president and secretary — according to the size of the or- 
ganization, — and also the principal as an ex officio mem- 
ber. The teachers on the board are not to act as cen- 
sors, but as leaders who are interested in the work of the 
society, who will attend its meetings, who will help plan 
and execute its work, and who, by their wisdom and 
experience, will lead the organization successfully in its 
undertakings. In this way there can be no possible 
clash between students and faculty, and harmonious co- 
operation will be the result. 

An Advisory Council. — The teachers who act upon the 
various advisory boards may be brought together by the 
principal as an advisory council to consider the general 
problem arising from the social activities among the stu- 
dents. These teachers are all actually in the work of the 
societies and are best able to assist the principal in estab- 
Hshing the social policy of his school. This council may 
also be used for special duties or in the consideration of 
special matters relating to social activities. Where hon- 
ors are granted for exceptional achievement along lines 
of social efficiency, this is the logical body to pass upon 
the awarding of such honors. Each school will in many 
ways find such a council a force for good. 

A Student Council. — Under the plan being described 
the students who are members of the various advisory 
boards, and also certain students chosen at large to rep- 
resent those who may not be members of any society, act 
as a student council. Such a body may be chosen in 
different ways, varying with local conditions. In any 



418 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

case, it will be found a very useful organization in con- 
nection with the school. The young people may initiate 
many movements for the betterment of the social life 
of the school; they can bring about many needed reforms 
at the suggestion of the principal; they can make investi- 
gations of conditions regarding the social life of the school 
or the community; they may nominate candidates for 
special honors to be approved by the advisory council 
of teachers; in fact, they can be made a most potent 
factor in handling difficult problems of social adminis- 
tration. This may be considered as a legitimate recog- 
nition of students' rights. The experience of many with 
student self-government schemes is that they are more 
scheme than government. It is not wise to build up 
machinery just for the sake of the machine. When cer- 
tain conditions arise that can best be handled by the 
student body or their representatives, it is time then to 
build the machinery necessary to care for the situation. 
For ordinary matters of general student concern any 
council which fairly represents the student body will 
prove a very valuable means of securing the good-will 
and loyal support of the pupils for the administration of 
the school, as well as an effective means of carrying into 
effect certain reforms in the social life of the school. 

Leadership Clubs. — In one school the principal di- 
vided the boys and the girls of the student council into 
two groups or clubs known as Leadership Clubs. The 
principal led the boys and the lady vice-principal the 
girls. They met once in two weeks to discuss in an inti- 
mate way the problems of high school life and the funda- 
mental principles of leadership. They also undertook 
certain investigations of conditions within the school, 
such as cheating, gambling, smoking, etc. For one sea- 



ADMINISTRATION OF SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 419 

son Professor Jenks's little book, "Life Problems of 
High School Boys, " was taken as a basis of study, inves- 
tigation, and discussion. In this way the influence of the 
principals was spread through the leaders of the stu- 
dent activities into the work of the several societies 
and thus into the very spirit of the student body. 

Rules and Regulations. — On general principles a school 
should have as few rules as possible. It should be mutu- 
ally understood that the pupil knows what is proper and 
what ought to be done without being constantly re- 
minded, watched, and punished. As much responsibility 
as possible should be placed upon the pupils for their own 
conduct. When rules are necessary it is a great help to 
invite the students to participate in their formation and 
execution. Through the co-operation of the student 
council and the advisory council, rules and regulations 
regarding the administration of student activities may 
be adopted and executed very satisfactorily. The fol- 
lowing code now in use in a city high school may prove 
suggestive. 

Rules Governing Student Organizations 

I. All organizations composed wholly or in part of high school 
pupils or using in any manner the name of the high school, or 

in anyway connected with the High School of , 

shall be under the direction of an advisory board composed of 
two members of the faculty chosen by the society and approved 
by the principal; of an equal number of student representatives 
of the individual society, including its president; and of the prin- 
cipal or vice-principal as an ex officio member. 

II. This advisory board shall pass upon all matters involving 
the general policy of the organization and shall supervise its 
work, using its influence in such a way as to avoid all objection- 
able features, and to assist the members in developing higher 
standards of social efficiency. The faculty members of the sev- 



420 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

eral advisory boards shall constitute the advisory council of the 
school. The student members of the advisory boards shall by 
virtue of this office become members of the student council of 
the school. 

III. No pupil shall belong to more than one organization 
under the same classification at the same time. 

IV. No pupil shall be permitted to hold office or to become a 
candidate for office who is not eligible- under the following inter- 
scholastic athletic rule: namely, that he or she shall have passed 
fourteen hours of work during each of the previous two semesters 
and shall be carrying fourteen hours of work satisfactorily during 
the semester of candidacy for office. 

V. No pupil shall be permitted to hold office in more than 
one organization at the same time, nor to serve in more than one 
executive capacity at the same time, except upon the special ap- 
proval of the advisory council. 

VI. Rule number III does not apply to such musical organi- 
zations or other activities for which credit is given toward gradu- 
ation. 

VII. Any question regarding the interpretation of these rules 
shall be decided by the advisory council. 

The Classification of Student Activities. — Some pupils 
are socially inclined, while others are very retiring 
and hard to draw into the activities that would do 
them the most good. For both classes of students it is 
quite necessary to provide that the socially inclined do 
not overdo this tendency to the detriment of their studies, 
and also to provide ample opportunity for the social de- 
velopment of the other class of students. Each school 
will find it necessary to work out its own classification, as 
some organizations may have certain characteristics that 
would place them in one group rather than in another. 
The classification outlined may be found helpful to those 
who are working along similar lines. 

The Academic Group. — Most common among the ac- 
tivities that may be classified as academic are the literary 



ADMINISTRATION OF SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 421 

and debating societies. These organizations are modern 
forms of the lyceums and forums of earlier generations. 
They have a real place in the life of the school and they 
offer an opportunity for the free exercise of literary and 
forensic ability that is not hampered by the formality of 
the classroom. Many a citizen of mature years will 
testify that of all his school experience the one thing that 
did most for his present success in life was the training 
received in the literary or debating society. Literary 
societies are under various names, but the work done is 
usually of a clearly defined type. One society that has 
had a successful career of twenty-six years has the follow- 
ing numbers on its weekly programme: — an original 
poem, an essay, a book review, a recitation, a reading, 
and an extemporaneous speech on some current topic. 
Each member must appear in his turn in each of these 
numbers on the programme, so that his training is varied. 
At the close of the programme every member present is 
called upon to criticise the presentation of each number. 
This same society has three annual events: — a "feed" 
the evening before Thanksgiving, a formal banquet on 
Washington's Birthday, and an "outing" or picnic on 
Decoration Day. Usually an exhibition programme is 
given to the public some time during the winter season. 

Debating societies that have proved very successful 
have been modelled after the national Senate or House of 
Representatives. One such organization has now been 
in existence for about twenty years and has established 
similar societies in neighboring cities with whom annual 
debates are held. 

Dramatic clubs might be classified under the heading 
of the "arts," but in the school from which this grouping 
is taken there is a department of public speaking and 



422 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

dramatics, and all clubs that come under the direc- 
tion of a regular department are considered as academic. 
Modern high schools are being built with auditoriums of 
large seating capacity, but few of them are equipped with 
a stage that is adapted to efficient dramatic work. The 
new Central High School in Grand Rapids, Mich., has 
in the place of the auditorium a completely equipped 
theatre. This is the headquarters of the department of 
public speaking. Voice culture, declamation, oratory, 
and debate lead up to the work in dramatic art as one of 
the forms of interpreting literature. This department 
has proved itself of great value to the pupils entering the 
work, to the school as a socializing influence, and to the 
community at large. 

In each department are usually to be found a certain N 
group of students who are particularly interested in the 
subject studied and who desire to go beyond the work of 
the classroom. Under the inspiration of some enthusi- 
astic teacher a club will be formed such as a German 
Club, a French Club, a History Club, a Travel Club, a 
Mathematics Club, a Home Economics Club, a Fauna 
and Flora Club, or a Wireless Club, etc. These organi- 
zations, while having an academic aim, are social in prac- 
tice and serve the purpose of grouping the pupils ac- 
cording to natural lines of common interest. 

The Arts Group.— Under this rather unsatisfactory 
heading may be classified the organizations that bring 
together those who are more or less talented along cer- 
tain artistic lines. This would include the musical clubs; 
namely, the orchestra, band, Boys' Glee-Club, Girls' Glee- 
Club, and Choral Society. Mandolin and banjo clubs are 
now almost obsolete. For successful leadership and ad- 
ministration these clubs should be directed by the teacher . 



ADMINISTRATION OF SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 423 

of music in the school or at least by a member of the 
faculty when one can be provided. Professional leaders 
not connected with the school, while they may be very 
good musicians, are not satisfactory from the point of 
view of the school administration. 

Music plays a most important part in the social life of 
the school. The weekly assembly means much more as 
a means of creating a spirit of unity, of inspiring loyalty, 
and of establishing a real school atmosphere when it has 
a splendid orchestra or uniformed band, glee-clubs, or 
choral society to lead the singing of patriotic airs or of a 
genuine local school song. 

Other organizations that are classified under the Arts 
Group are the Camera Club, the Sketching Club, and the 
Arts and Crafts Club. These societies bring together 
those of similar tastes and abilities, and through the as- 
sociation of kindred spirits lend inspiration to the work. 

The Athletic Group. — As the subject of athletics is 
fully treated in another chapter very little need be said 
here. The whole school, including both faculty and stir- 
dents, should make up the membership in the athletic 
association. Besides the usual groups whose social rela- 
tions are very close, and in which friendships become 
very strong, such as the football team, the basket-ball 
team, the baseball team, and the track team, an athletic 
honor society, composed of all those who have won their 
I letters," has proved to be of great value in maintaining 
high standards among those interested in athletics. 
This society known as the "Monogram Club," or by any 
other name that may be chosen, necessarily contains the 
leading athletes in the school, who are usually the boys 
of greatest influence in the student life. To organize 
these young men for the purpose of promoting the ath- 



424 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

letic interests and of establishing manly ideals in the 
realm of sport is to establish a power for good in the stu- 
dent life and to secure real help to the administration of 
the school. 

The Social Group. — This classification may seem 
superfluous. The failure of the fraternity system is in 
part due to the fact that its only aim has been social 
exclusiveness in the narrow use of the term. No school 
society should exist without a larger, better, and more 
practical aim than getting together for a " social" good 
time. While this may appear harmless, it will soon wear 
itself out and is bound to degenerate into more harmful 
practices. However, there are some legitimate organ- 
izations that are purely social. These would include 
the class organizations commonly called senior, junior, 
sophomore, and freshmen societies. Only a few class 
meetings may be held in large schools in which there are 
a number of smaller organizations, and yet these meet- 
ings serve a real purpose in developing loyalty and social 
efficiency in the school. 

General School Organizations. — By this division in the 
classification it is intended to include all organizations 
or organized movements that are not to be found above. 
First among these would be the editorial staff of the 
school paper. It is considered as " general" because it 
should represent all grades in the school and both faculty 
and students. Editors-in-chief should be selected by 
competition or because of excellence in that special line 
of work. The organization of the editors, the managers, 
and the representatives from the several classes and the 
faculty will form a society that, under the right kind of 
leadership, can do much to mould the public opinion of 
the school and of the homes interested in the school. 



ADMINISTRATION OF SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 425 

The administration cannot afford to lose sight of this 
powerful factor. 

Under this same classification may be included schol- 
arship honor societies, the Bible-study clubs which are 
being promoted by the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. 
throughout the country, and general civic clubs. Among 
the latter is one organization that is proving very popu- 
lar, called the Junior Association of Commerce, taking 
the name of the local commercial organization. This 
club is affiliated with the men's club of the city and has 
for its purpose the study and investigation of the indus- 
trial, commercial, and civic conditions of the city. The 
regular programme consists of a business meeting, a voca- 
tional address by some man prominent in the industrial, 
business, or professional world, a period of questions and 
discussion, and usually a trip of investigation to the place 
of business or industry described by the speaker. 

Temporary organizations often are necessary to carry 
out some campaign, celebration, or general social func- 
tion. In order that the rule regarding the distribution 
of offices and executive positions might be carried out, 
such organizations are classified under this heading. 

Social Efficiency and School Records. — When a pupil 
leaves school there is usually very little on file in the 
way of a permanent record except the percentages gained 
in certain subjects. This really tells very little about the 
ability or general worth of the pupil. The employer who 
asks for a recommendation cares very little whether the 
pupil's standing in history was eighty-five per cent or 
ninety-one per cent. What he usually asks is : " What kind 
of boy is he?" Has he ambition or any marked ability? 
Is he honest, industrious, prompt, and loyal? Has he ini- 
tiative, energy, push? Can he work harmoniously with 



426 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

others and can he lead? Is he socially efficient? These 
are the important qualifications that school records have 
failed to preserve. A card system is quite generally used 
to-day for all manner of records. If the reverse side of 
the scholarship card is not used, it can be put to very 
valuable service under the following headings: — " Plans 
for Future," " Special Ability," " Vocational and Social 
Experience," and "Character." This record should be 
made at the close of each semester by the teacher who 
has been in charge of the pupil. Only positive facts 
should be recorded. If there should be anything that 
would injure the reputation or future prospects of the 
pupil it might better be omitted. Such an instance may 
be referred to by the remark "see Mr. Blank," indicating 
the teacher who personally knows of the facts in the case. 
If that teacher is at hand when reference to the record 
is needed he may be consulted, but if not, nothing is lost. 
Mistakes of youth should not be taken too seriously in 
passing judgment upon character. School records are 
very incomplete if they do not afford the information 
necessary to enable us to answer the positive questions 
of ability and character suggested above. 

Credit toward Graduation for Social Efficiency. — In 
the large high school there are certain offices connected 
with student activities that require so much time, energy, 
and special ability that to do the work well necessarily 
interferes with the regular requirements of the curriculum. 
To edit a school paper or act as its business manager not 
only takes a large amount of time but affords a rich busi- 
ness experience and training that is educationally of as 
much value as, if not greater than, much of the work now 
credited for graduation. To represent the school in an 
interscholastic debate or oratorical contest also takes 



ADMINISTRATION OF SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 427 

time from the regular work and at the same time gives a 
training that cannot be gained from the credited studies. 
The same can be said of well-conducted musical organi- 
zations and of other activities. Many schools are grant- 
ing certain credits toward graduation for such work as is 
considered worthy of recognition by the school author- 
ities. About as satisfactory a plan as any to be found 
is to make certain allowances of time and material in 
those subjects which deal most directly with the nature 
of the "outside" or " social" work. As an illustration: 
pupils acting as editors-in-chief of the school paper, rep- 
resenting the school in an interscholastic debate or orator- 
ical contest, or taking a leading part in a dramatic pro- 
duction during a given semester may be excused from a 
certain portion of the work in English; and the character 
of the outside work done may be graded and credited as 
a part of that subject. Those students who undertake 
the business management of the school paper or the 
athletic teams in large schools are handling large sums of 
money and are getting a business experience that cannot 
be taught in a class in bookkeeping. Such work under 
the supervision of the head of the commercial department 
could be passed upon and credited under that heading. 
Faithful and proficient service in an orchestra or other 
musical organization is often deemed worthy of similar 
recognition. If there is a department of music in the 
school, the organizations are considered a regular part of 
the course and are credited as such. The same can be 
said of athletic work. When the school is equipped with 
a gymnasium and has a physical instructor, work done 
upon the teams may be taken into account in crediting 
the work in physical training. More and more as the 
social activities of students are brought under the direc- 



428 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tion of expert faculty leaders, and as the demand for 
social efficiency as a product of the high school is ap- 
preciated, proper standards of efficiency and of educa- 
tional values in terms of credit hours will be estab- 
lished. 

Conclusion. — Schoolmen are evidently more deeply 
interested in the social development of adolescent boys 
and girls than they have ever been before. The social 
demands of modern business, of industry, and of profes- 
sional life are pointing out to educators certain essential 
social qualifications for successful entrance upon these 
fields of endeavor. The social spirit of the age is reflected 
in the student life and it has introduced new problems 
that schoolmen are called upon to solve. This obliga- 
tion can no longer be ignored nor wilfully pushed aside. 
It must be faced squarely as an educational question. In 
spite of traditional ideals regarding the purpose of the 
high school and of our theories regarding the responsibil- 
ities of the home, the church, and the community for the 
social training of youth r the fact remains that the prob- 
lem of guiding and directing the social activities of high 
school students is one for the school definitely to face. 
Those who have the responsibility of organizing and man- 
aging a modern high school are compelled to accept the 
administration of the social activities among students as 
a legitimate and regular function of the office and one 
full of possibilities for education and character making. 



CHAPTER XVII 

HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS AND GYMNASTICS AS AN 

EXPRESSION OF THE CORPORATE LIFE OF 

THE HIGH SCHOOL 

James Naismith, M.D. 

PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND DIRECTOR OF HEALTH AND 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS 

The Broad Setting of Organized Athletics in the Health 
Movement and in School Administration.— The agencies 
which extended and varied experience has shown to bet- 
ter the health of school children, safeguard them from 
disease, render them healthier, happier, and more vigor- 
ous, and to insure for them such physical and mental 
vitality as will best enable them to take full advantage 
of the free education offered by the State are the follow- 
ing as enumerated by Leonard P. Ayres: 

i. Medical inspection for preventing the spread of contagious 
disease; and for the discovery and cure of remediable 
physical defects; 

2. Dental inspection for the purpose of securing sound teeth 

among school children; 

3. School nurses, who work with doctors, teachers, and parents 

to improve the health of the children; 

4. Open-air schools, for giving to the physically weak such ad- 

vantages of pure air, good food, and warm sunshine as 
may enable them to pursue their studies while regaining 
their physical vigor; 

429 



430 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

5. Special classes for the physically handicapped and mentally 

exceptional in which children may receive the care and 
instruction fitted to their needs; 

6. School gardens, which serve as nature-study laboratories, 

where education and recreation go hand in hand, and 
increased knowledge is accompanied by increased bodily 
efficiency; 

7. School playgrounds, which afford space, facilities, opportu- 

nity, and incentive for the expression of play instincts and 
impulses; 

8. Organized athletics, which aid in physical development, and 

afford training in alertness, intense application, vigorous 
exertion, loyalty, obedience to law and order, self-control, 
self-sacrifice, and respect for the rights of others; 

9. All adjuncts of better sanitation in schoolhouses, such as sani- 

tary drinking cups and fountains, systems of vacuum clean- 
ing, improved systems of lighting, heating, and ventila- 
tion. 

" The health movement in our public schools has been 
transformed during the past decade from a merely nega- 
tive movement, having as an object the avoidance of 
disease, to a splendidly positive movement, having as its 
aim the development of vitality. We desire for the youth 
of the future schools in which health instead of disease 
will be contagious, in which the playground will be as 
important as the book, and where pure water, pure air, 
and abundant sunshine will be rights and not privileges. 
In these schools the physical, the mental, and the moral 
will be developed together and not separately; the child 
will live not only in healthy surroundings, but in sur- 
roundings where he will acquire habits of health which 
will be lifelong." 

Definition and Aims. — Physical education is that di- 
rection of motor activity by means of which we develop 
indirectly the mind in so far as it directs, the character 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 431 

in so far as it controls the physical nature; and directly 
the body, its structure, functions, and powers. There 
are two contending aims of physical activity. One seeks 
the recreation, education, and development of the indi- 
vidual; the other seeks the entertainment and applause 
of the spectators. Each has its proper place and should 
be appreciated as a means for the accomplishment of cer- 
tain ends. Each should be given sufficient but not un- 
due and never exclusive prominence. Each should have 
its proper place in the course of development laid out for 
the student. A just balance of emphasis and a wise 
choice of the means for the accomplishment of these ends 
will make a course in physical education eminently suc- 
cessful ; while a neglect of either will mean that the course 
will neither reflect credit on the school nor will it achieve 
the results which should be expected. The spectacular 
type aims at popularity for the contestant, the coach, and 
the school; the developmental aims at the good of the 
individual. One seeks the applause of the spectators, the 
other the reward of a hard-earned "well done"; one sub- 
ordinates the individual's welfare to the gate receipts, 
the other considers the individual of greater importance ; 
one helps the student in order to magnify the sport, 
the other uses the sport to help the student; one makes 
the sport the end and the student the means, the other 
makes the sport the means and the student the end. 

Forms of Motor Activity. — There are three forms of 
motor activity, distinguished by the motive that leads to 
action. Work is an activity which has for its incentive 
the accomplishing of some object without reference to 
the effect upon the individual; exercise is an activity 
which has for its incentive the development of the indi- 
vidual in physique, reflex ability, and moral attributes; 



432 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

play is a motor response to an inner desire for activity. 
Work is objective, exercise is subjective, and play is in- 
stinctive. Muscular activity may belong to any one of 
these forms. We get the same muscular development 
regardless of the motive. However, associated with play 
is the joyous attitude which is beneficial, while with work 
may be associated an antagonistic attitude which robs 
the individual of the recreative features. Some qualities 
are developed mainly in play, while others are developed 
only when there is an ulterior motive to be attained. In 
play we follow the instincts and when we have had 
enough we promptly stop; but in work we push ourselves 
beyond that point, thereby gaining concentration and 
perseverance. To get the best results, it is necessary to 
have in proper proportions all three forms, adapted, as 
the case may be, to the needs of the individual concerned 
always rather than to the interests of the coach or the 
school. 

Value of Muscular Activities. — Hygienic. — The hy- 
gienic value of exercise is of primary importance, because 
health is fundamental to all other kinds of activity; 
through all previous stages of evolution muscular activ- 
ity has been the dominant factor. In the course of civi- 
lization we have made the forces of nature do our motor 
work, and we depend more and more on the activities of 
the mind to relieve us of motor activity. Thus we tend 
to neglect that part of our organism by which we reached 
our present status. A too sudden change from muscular 
activity to one of inaction gives an opportunity for all 
manner of abnormal conditions to arise. This is true of 
the whole race as well as of the individual. To-day we 
compel our children to spend in school the hours which 
were formerly spent in developing a good, strong phy- 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 433 

sique, taking no pains to preserve the proper balance of 
growth between the physical and the intellectual. We 
attempt to transfer our children from the era of muscular 
activity to that of mental concentration without the care 
that we should give a transplanted garden plant. At 
the time of life when youth is by nature and instincts 
developing the body and its powers, we keep him in a 
state of muscular inactivity while we mould his mind by 
a narrow sort of mental routine. On the playground, if 
indeed we give him that much, we leave him without 
guidance and grant him the widest choice, if there be any, 
of the means of development. We induce a habit of in- 
activity in youth which later costs us time and effort to 
correct in order that he may eke out a life of pain and 
suffering. What we need is a habit of exercise in youth 
which is not too great a tax on the vitality at the time, 
and one that will stay with us later in life, or a wise 
choice in kind and a moderate amount of muscular activ- 
ity in youth which will give us the power and the incli- 
nation to indulge in recreation activities throughout life. 

All our life mental efficiency is dependent on physical 
integrity, and it is just as necessary to have a "health 
conscience" as it is to have a moral conscience. Indeed, 
it is impossible to have the latter without the former. 
In addition to the mental, the emotional side of man 
is dependent on health. Good health is accompanied 
with an even temper, a poise, and a consideration for 
others that makes human association a pleasure; while 
lack of health is a source of family and social discomfort. 

A most important phase of the health question is the 
fact that the next generation is dependent on the physi- 
cal health and vigor of this one, not only for actual exis- 
tence but also for the normal powers and pleasures of life. 



434 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

We have no more right to rob this next generation of a 
good body and a healthy heritage than we have to rob 
it of its wealth. The community insists, by means of 
laws and truant officers, that the youth spend so many 
hours per week in developing his mind, while we have 
neither laws nor officers to compel our boards of educa- 
tion, our principals, and our teachers to give a develop- 
ment to the student's body, which is fundamental to all 
other forms and without which all other development is 
void. Therefore, no school system is complete without 
a systematic course of physical education nor is any 
course complete without health as a fundamental ele- 
ment of it. 

Recreative Value. — In recreation we set to work the re- 
building processes. We change the activities from the 
thought centres to the reflex centres, and the greater the 
reflex ability of the individual the more easy is recre- 
ation. We also re-establish the equilibrium of the blood 
supply. In tense application to an intellectual subject, 
the blood is carried to the brain away from the motor 
organs. In play this is reversed and the normal state is 
restored. Recreation, likewise, gives vent to the joyous 
side of life. During study the feelings are restrained 
while the mind is busy. In play the feelings are free 
to express themselves in response to immediate sur- 
roundings. Competition in games is an incentive which 
relieves the voluntary centres occupied in producing 
muscular activity. 

Social Value. — The social value of physical education 
is illustrated when it is seen that on the athletic field 
every one finds his true level. The one who will perfect 
himself physically for the good of the institution is re- 
spected, regardless of his ancestry or his financial stand- 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 435 

ing. Mere manhood is recognized, while lack of it is 
sufficient to bar a student from the honors of his fellows. 
The leader on the field is chosen for his inherent qualities, 
even though some other may have been given the nom- 
inal post of honor. True leadership is recognized and 
followed in all games of physical skill and prowess. In 
athletics the individual is secondary to the organization 
and the individual does the part assigned to him. Out 
of the proper number of units an efficient organization is 
evolved. Furthermore, all games are governed by sets 
of rules formulated in order that the player may know 
the rights of others as well as his own, and also the limits 
beyond which he may not go, the overstepping of which 
incurs a penalty. True sportsmanship is a recognition 
of the rights of others and our own in playing the game 
in accordance with these fundamental principles. With 
the proper guidance the spirit of fair play and square deal 
is inculcated. 

Educational Value. — The educational value of physical 
education is seen when we recognize the fact that it de- 
velops the reflexes, thus leaving the volitional part of the 
mind to do more effective work of a different order. 
Thus the student learns how to get recreation. The 
adult who attempts to learn a game must first pass 
through a period of strain, because all reflexes are first 
voluntary. It is a strain on his judgment to gain con- 
trol of a new reflex. Many men are unable to stand the 
strain of life because they have never learned how to 
play, and it is impossible for them to become expert in 
later years. Consequently, they are unable to indulge in 
proper recreation. Youth, especially high school age, 
is the time to gain control of all the reflexes that we 
are to use in our after-life. Failure to do so at this time 



436 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

frequently means that we are to go through life without 
that power. Again, it develops physical judgment or 
the ability to estimate the motion of moving objects and 
to accommodate ourselves to them. This ability en- 
ables one to make his way through a crowd without con- 
fusion or nervous strain and to estimate the amount of 
energy needed to accomplish a certain result without 
waste of effort. It develops also intensity and con- 
centration without undue strain. The expert is able 
to keep his mind on the object in hand, while one who 
cannot do this is a failure. It is this attribute that is 
developed by successful participation in competitive 
contests. Exercise and training, furthermore, develop 
perseverance. It is not always he who gets his blow in 
first who wins out. It is always he who gets his blow in 
last. The ability to continue in a course and to compel 
conditions to yield to our will is of inestimable value in 
every phase of life. This is par excellence the aim of 
physical education. Cases are common where men have 
been chosen for difficult positions because of this attri- 
bute shown and developed in sport. A football guard 
said that the game had given him the stamina to with- 
stand homesickness and discouragements and to con- 
tinue his work to a successful issue, and, furthermore, 
that it was the only part of his education that had 
dealt directly with that necessary factor in life. 

Character Value. — By character we mean the kind of 
response which a man makes to the opportunities which 
are presented to him. There are two forms of response, 
the voluntary and the reflex. The voluntary response 
comes after deliberation, when the individual has had 
time to make his judgment, and is apt to be correct. 
These responses, however, are not frequent. The ma- 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 437 

jority of our responses are reflex, made without delibera- 
tion, dependent on the activities of our past life. The 
kind of reflex response that we make to a condition is 
determined by the way in which we have responded to 
similar conditions in the past. The boy who has high 
ideals and has lived up to them on the playground will 
let these same ideals control his relations in the business 
world. But no matter how high the ideals that have 
been presented to a youth may have been, if he forgets 
them on the playground he will forget them in after-life 
in his business and social relations. 

Athletics alone will not develop these ideals, but they 
must be instilled by some one who has the respect and 
confidence of the student and who has the power to see 
that fair means are recognized and employed by both 
teams. Thus we see that the athletic field can be the 
laboratory in which ethics may be taught and practised. 
The athlete, furthermore, learns to appreciate a clean 
body, one that is under his control all the time. The 
man who indulges in habits which weaken his efficiency 
may last for a short time, but he is soon relegated to 
the side-lines and his native ability, instead of being 
a source of pride and honor, becomes a subject of re- 
proach because he is unable to use it for the good of his 
organization. It is not play but the strenuous work 
aspect of athletics that tests and develops a student's 
strength of character and moulds his nature into sterner 
stuff. 

In athletics, too, a man must learn to control his entire 
self, not his muscular self alone but also his emotional 
or temperamental self. The individual who constantly 
loses his temper is a handicap to his team. Not only 
does he fail to do his best because of inattention to the 



438 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

object in hand but he frequently brings punishment and 
disgrace to his team. The hot-headed and impetuous are 
taught to restrain themselves, while the lethargic and 
phlegmatic are often aroused to the necessary pitch for 
self-assertion and self-discovery. Notable examples of 
this may be found on nearly every football team. For 
example, a player on a Kansas team who was noted and 
named for his righting propensities made the statement 
at the beginning of his senior year that he would not 
"slug" once during the entire season. This he fulfilled 
to the letter, putting the energy that he formerly wasted 
on watching for an opportunity to get even with his oppo- 
nent into playing the game. During the season he cov- 
ered himself with glory for his playing ability. He was 
not a poorer player but a better after learning to control 
and direct his temper. 

Self-sacrifice is one of the noble qualities of character 
which is developed by many forms of athletics. In 
games that require team-work, when the choice comes to 
one between conflicting interests of the team and self, 
the latter must be made subordinate. The thing to 
be done must be done in accordance with the plans and 
for the sake of the organization. The individual who 
sacrifices the team for self is automatically and sum- 
marily ostracized. He has failed to meet the crucial 
test. 

The Place of Physical Education in the School Pro- 
gramme. — If physical education performs such important 
functions in the development of the individual, can we 
relegate its operation to the few who care to take part, 
neglecting all the mass of the students? If it is good 
for the few who are expert it is much better for the many 
who need the development. It is an integral function of 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 439 

the school and should be so connected and administered. 
If it is left to the initiative and caprice of the student it 
will be neglected by the ones who need it and overdone 
by those who are already well developed. Like children 
playing with a sharp knife, they may be benefited in 
their power to use it but may also be sadly disfigured in 
the process of learning. Physical education may be a 
great benefit or a great injury to the participant accord- 
ing as it is wisely or carelessly administered. 

The responsibility rests with the school board to see 
that it is put on the proper basis of financial support. 
It is the duty of the superintendent, or the principal, to 
put it before the board in its true light as a fundamental 
educational issue. It can no longer be looked on as a 
necessary evil, but must be dovetailed into the other 
dominant work of the school and be accepted as quite on 
a par with intellectual exercises. It is now not so much 
a neglected subject which has been rediscovered, as a new 
need brought about by the change in our civilization. 
The boy who works gets a certain amount of muscular 
development. If he is a normal boy his instincts lead 
him to play whenever the opportunity offers. On the 
farm or in the small town there is a certain amount of 
physical activity which he necessarily gets, but with 
this he should have the educative benefits of games. The 
school system which does not provide play for the child 
is depriving it of that which is natural and instinctive. 
Such a policy is a crime against nature and one for which 
as a nation we shall have to pay in enfeebled constitu- 
tions and inefficient men and women. Again, we have 
been too long drearily endeavoring to find some way of de- 
veloping the ethical standards and some practical way in 
which the standards could be applied. All the time the 



440 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

very best laboratory for this ethical ministration has been 
pushed aside or overlooked. The sooner we recognize 
the value of sport in the full development of the indi- 
vidual the sooner shall we begin to make our educational 
system efficient. 

Less than fifteen years ago the high school athletes 
who came to college represented the least-developed 
group, so far as true sportsmanship was concerned, 
chiefly because they had been accustomed to playing a 
game unrestrained and without co-operation. All sorts 
of tricks were used to win a contest, such as importing 
players, choosing biassed officials, and resorting to unfair 
tactics in general. It was no unusual thing to have the 
game end in a fight in which players and spectators par- 
ticipated. To-day our athletes from the high schools 
represent the best sportsmanship possible. To-day a 
track meet in which there are hundreds of contestants 
may be run off without a hitch or a dispute, even though 
there are always plenty of opportunities for the partici- 
pants to feel that they have not received all that was 
their due. The coaches and the managers attempt to 
get only impartial officials and trust them to give a 
square deal. To-day men of opposing teams applaud 
a good play of their opponents, a thing that was un- 
known when the games were regulated by the " sports" 
of the town. Now the presence of the principal and 
other teachers lends a dignity and an educational sanc- 
tion to the events. 

Conduct of Sports. — Something should be said with ref- 
erence to the methods of conducting the work of physical 
education, especially athletics. As there are two phases 
of the work, so there are two factors to be considered 
in the plans for administering it. When the question is 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 441 

one of the development of the individual, the only com- 
petent authority is the one who understands the struc- 
ture and the functions of the body as well as the nature 
of the exercises. When we look at exercise as develop- 
ing the individual, the person in charge cannot have too 
much knowledge of the whole subject, and he should have 
the power to direct the student for his good. On the 
other hand, when there are contests between schools the 
competition must necessarily be between students, and 
it is well that they should have some voice in the admin- 
istration of affairs. There are several things that the 
students can do better than any other person, and indeed, 
if they do not do these things they must remain undone. 
No influence is so strong as student sentiment, and once 
it is brought to bear on any phase of school life it has 
great weight. There are certain phases of the work that 
can best be done by some one who has had experience and 
who is permanently connected with the school. Thus the 
management of games can best be done by a faculty 
member, provided his knowledge of the subject is suffi- 
cient to keep him from making mistakes. 

In scheduling games, it is necessary to look forward as 
well as backward, and arrange them with a view to the 
succeeding years. Only a permanent manager can do 
this well. Again, some phases of the work can best be 
done by students themselves. Preceding every great 
contest there are days and weeks of hard, grinding work, 
and the student can call out the enthusiasm that is neces- 
sary to carry the candidates through the hard grind. A 
combination of the two is necessary for the proper en- 
forcement of eligibility rules, for it is necessary to have 
a view from both angles. 

Accordingly, there are the three methods in vogue in 



442 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

different institutions: viz., faculty control, where some 
member of that body manages the whole subject; second, 
where the students do all the managing; and third, where 
there is a combination of the two. The ideal is for the 
faculty to be responsible for the financial arrangements, 
the choice of officials, and arrangement of schedules; a 
combined faculty and student committee to take charge 
of the eligibility, and a student committee to be responsi- 
ble for the energy and enthusiasm that are necessary for 
the best results. A student sentiment can get men out 
who are careless, indifferent, or ineligible, while no 
amount of coaxing from the manager and coach would 
have the same result. Faculty management is progres- 
sive and economical, while student discipline is whole- 
some and thorough if undertaken in the right spirit. 
When the ineligibility of a player is viewed as a breach 
of loyalty to the institution, on the part of the student 
rather than an attempt on the part of the faculty to kill 
the sport, the athletic tone of the school becomes a 
purposeful constructive factor in the life of the institu- 
tion. A principal with the true ideals of sportsmanship, 
if he has the backing of his teachers and the sympathy 
of his boys, can set a high standard of sportsmanship and 
have his students proud to live up to that ideal. 

The sentiment of the main body of students is always 
for the best, but in every institution there are a few in- 
dividuals who think that they represent the whole school 
in their views, but who simply follow in the footsteps of 
the sporting element of the town. There are always 
enough good, sensible boys and girls in the institution 
who can mould public opinion if they are organized. If 
the principal will organize these he can accomplish won- 
ders. If he fails to set the ideals high enough, or fails to 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 443 

have his boys live up to them, he fails in his social duty 
to the highest interest of his school and his students in- 
dividually. 

Legitimate Aims of High School Athletics. — These 
might be classified as follows: first, to benefit the indi- 
vidual with reference to his health, his education, and his 
morals, and, second, to advertise the school. In doing this 
the loyalty of the student is exercised and his interest in 
the school is increased. On the other hand, we have no 
right to demand too much from the student in the way 
of exalting the school, unless he himself is thereby bene- 
fited. If in order to glorify the school he must sacrifice 
health, education, or opportunity; if he must resort to 
trickery or unfair tactics, it is better that the school go 
without the glory. The school is made for the student, 
not the student for the school. A third aim is to furnish 
an opportunity for comparing one student with another, 
or one school with another. Such a comparison stimu- 
lates better work and widens the view of life. While it 
may be true that athletics are not the highest form of 
education, yet they furnish the most practical form for 
the purpose of comparison, and provide a good criterion 
of earnestness and enthusiasm as well as of sportsman- 
ship. 

The high school student is in the developing stage and 
needs the most careful attention, both physically and in 
the interests of his emotions. If the coach does not un- 
derstand this he will condemn the contestant as being a 
quitter and a coward, whereas the fault may lie in nature's 
way of growth. At this time many boys are disheart- 
ened and cease to attempt any form of athletics. If this 
had been noted and the period safeguarded, he would 
have had no serious misgivings about his ability. This is 



444 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

true of the runs, especially the long distance. These 
races depend more on condition than on skill, and it is 
impossible to keep up a high degree of endurance for a 
long time. Thus few of the distance runners of the high 
school make good in the university, unless they have 
come up through a long course of cross country or hare 
and hounds, where the development of the heart has been 
gradual and without strain. One noted athlete, one of 
the strongest runners of his university, developed himself 
while in high school, not on the track but on the road 
going to and from school. Bailey, of Kansas, a long-dis- 
tance runner, developed himself by running to and from 
the route where he carried papers. These men and 
others developed first strong physiques, and then went 
on the track when they were more mature. 

The Type of Physical Instructor Wanted. — The in- 
structor problem is likewise a critical one in this con- 
nection. We demand trained teachers for the intel- 
lectual development of our students, but in the field of 
physical education we are satisfied with a man who knows 
little about his subject save the team-work of some one 
sport. We put him in charge of the physical activities 
even when he is utterly ignorant of any other form of 
exercise. It is a greater recommendation with the ma- 
jority of principals for a man entering this work that he 
have a " letter" from some university for his participa- 
tion in some sport than that he have expert knowledge 
of the broad field of physical education. It would be 
different if he were put in charge of his own subject, but 
when he takes charge of the development of the body, he 
is biassed by his experience in football and has a contempt 
for anything but that in which he excels. Few men who 
were simply football athletes have made good as high 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 445 

school directors. Baseball, basket-ball, and track men 
do better. There is little encouragement to spend time on 
such subjects as anatomy, physiology — which are fun- 
damental to all physical development — when a knowledge 
of some sport counts so much more in obtaining a posi- 
tion in high school physical education. While every di- 
rector should have some sport in which he is a specialist, 
his knowledge should not be confined to one sport. It 
should be extensive enough to give a wide view of the 
whole field and of the benefits to the individual. When 
the authorities recognize the proper status of physical 
education, the men preparing for this profession as a life 
work will elect an extended curriculum that will be of per- 
manent value to them and enable them to carry on a suc- 
cessful work, as judged by the valid educational stand- 
ards. 

Factors Determining Choice of Games. — While any 
game will give us a certain development, it is necessary in 
order that we get the best to select our games with care 
and judgment and with a due regard to the conditions 
under which they will be played. Many factors should 
be taken into consideration. The age of the participant 
is important. High school age is a critical one for certain 
lines of development. It is the period when the organs 
and functions of the body are adjusting themselves to the 
future needs of the individual, the whole system being 
in a state of unstable equilibrium. It is a period of 
growth of the muscular and skeletal systems. We should, 
therefore, eliminate all those exercises which will put too 
great a strain on the muscles, heart, and blood-vessels, 
such as the long-distance runs. This principle does not 
refer to such games as hare and hounds; for here periods 
of rest alternate with activity. High school age, again, is 



446 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the time when the nervous system is assuming control 
over the various muscle groups, therefore this phase 
should be accepted. It is the logical time for the student 
to acquire facilities which he will need in later life. It is 
the period in which to take up, for example, such events 
as the broad jump, the high jump, hurdles, pole-vault, 
and shot put. For the arms and chest such exercises as 
the parallel bars, the horizontal bar, and rings are 
valuable. 

Desirable Qualities and the Games Required to De- 
velop Them. — Again, we are concerned at this time of 
life with the inhibitions which are undeveloped. Our 
high school student is enthusiastic to the point of reck- 
lessness, and while this may have its disadvantages it 
gives us an excellent opportunity to develop the ability 
to take care of himself in times of danger. Later, he will 
be too cautious to attempt the feats that develop this 
power. Courage comes from the knowledge of what to 
do when the unexpected arises. We can, therefore, de- 
velop courage by a judicious oversight and direction at 
this time. This is the gregarious period. We must call 
forth the instinct of co-operation and sublimate it into a 
loyalty to the institution. 

The qualities that should be developed in this period 
are skill, speed, suppleness, agility, physical judgment, 
co-operation, and courage. Those games should be se- 
lected which will tend to develop the right type of man. 
Those which will make the clumsy agile, the weak strong, 
the nervous vigorous, and the phlegmatic active are the 
ones to be chosen for this period. A sport which calls out 
a moderate amount of each quality will have this effect, 
especially if each position in the game calls forth these 
qualities. 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 



447 



A consideration of the foregoing principles will show 
that the games best suited for this period are baseball, 
soccer, lacrosse, sprinting, the various forms of jumping, 
elementary apparatus work, basket-ball, and some of the 
defensive sports such as boxing and singlestick. Baseball 
is good because it demands skill and judgment and a great 
many of the qualities suggested. Soccer is an excellent 
game for high school students as it develops skill, alert- 




Chart I. — This chart shows the physical development reached 
through a course in all-around athletics. This student devoted 
his time to development in skill so that, before graduation, he 
held the college record in high jump, pole-vault, and hurdles, and 
was among the best at the broad jump. This is a record of four 
years' consistent work in athletics. However, all the other ad- 
vantages of athletics, in addition to this development of his phy- 
sique, he enjoyed to a high degree, as shown by his record. 



448 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



ness of action, quick judgment, and a certain amount of 
self-assertion and self-confidence combined with co-oper- 




Chart II. — This chart shows the development from long-dis- 
tance running. This student was on the freshman team for one 
year and on the varsity team for three. His events were the 
mile, the two mile, and cross country. The heavy black line 
represents his measurements on entering college and the broken 
line those taken on the eve of his graduation. Comment is 
unnecessary as the lines speak for themselves. When the hy- 
pertrophy of the heart, which is a necessary part of a runner's 
equipment, has been reduced to the normal, and the muscular 
system has lost the tone of vigorous training, what is left to the 
runner save a few medals and honors? The athletic ability he 
has acquired is simply that of an automaton with the power to 
concentrate and drive the body beyond its normal limits; a 
power which is a menace to the person once the heart and mus- 
cles have lost their tone. 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 449 

ation with the other members of the team. It is an 
excellent preparation for football, as it teaches one to 
work on his feet and with his feet, also to meet an oppo- 
nent without flinching and in such a way as to eliminate 
the shock. Fewer accidents would result from the other 
game if the individuals were first taught soccer. It is 
one of the least expensive games as very little new equip- 




Chart III. — The chart of a student who took the regular class 
work in physical education — soccer one half term, basket-ball 
one half term, and apparatus work one term. The solid line 
represents his measurements on entering and the broken line 
his measurements at the close of his freshman year. 

This was not a selected case but one that came into the office 
for his second measurement while this chapter was being written. 
There was no special attempt on the part of the student to make 
a record. It came in the ordinary course of the school work. 



450 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



ment is required. Lacrosse is an ideal game for this pe- 
riod as it develops the best type of athlete — the wiry, 
supple, agile man with good arms and shoulders. The 
objection that it is difficult to learn is a point in its favor, 
once it is started; for then there is so much to learn 
that it never becomes tiresome. It is not an expensive 
game as it requires no special uniform but is played in 
a running suit. The crosse is not expensive and lasts 




Chart IV. — This chart shows the results of three months' work 
in a deliberate attempt to make the body more symmetrical. 
The subject was a medical student whose classes ran from 
8 a. m. to 5.30 p. m. The exercise was taken at 12 m. until 
12.30, when a light lunch was partaken of, allowing him to get 
back to work at 1.30. His work consisted of pulley weights and 
clubs for the chest, squatting and tumbling for the neck and legs, 
and the horse and parallel bars for the arms and legs. 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 451 

for several years. The game is one in which there is a 
certain amount of personal contact, enough to make it 
strenuous and demand self-control. Basket-ball is for 
the winter months, indoors, what the above games are 
for outdoors. The development derived from basket- 
ball resembles that obtained from lacrosse. It was an 
attempt to get a game like lacrosse that introduced 
basket-ball. All these games must be regulated as there 
may be too great a strain on the heart. However, there 
is this difference between these and the long-distance 
runs, that the strain on the heart becomes less as the 
player becomes more expert, and skill in passing takes 
the place of individual running., With all these should 
be associated some form of apparatus work, as there is 
no game that brings out the development of the arms 
and chest. See Chart No. I. 

Certain Practical Considerations. — There are several 
practical phases of the subject of physical education 
which should be taken into consideration. First, as to 
equipment; some games cannot be used because we may 
not have the necessary equipment. This is especially 
true of apparatus work in a gymnasium. But the great 
majority of the really valuable sports can be played on 
almost any kind of ground. Baseball, lacrosse, and soc- 
cer can be played on almost any clear space. Second, 
there should be plenty of opportunity for competition. 
It is almost useless for one institution to select a game, 
no matter how good it may be, unless the near-by insti- 
tutions adopt the same game, although it may be made 
interesting as an interclass game. In this matter a 
county or district organization can do effective and valu- 
able work in getting the schools together and deciding 
upon the best sport to be encouraged in that particular 



452 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



GAMES 


KINDERGARTEN 


graoes IIhigh school 


COLLEGE IrtCHNIC/ILJ 


D 


E 


fcj 


XP. 


ME 


h 


E3 


E 




m 




1 AERONAUTICS 
























































ANTE-OVER 
























— H 


























ARCHERY 
AUTO POLO 










4- 










































BASE BALL 
BASKET Bfl LI 










T 




























4 






































BEAN BAGS 






































T 
















BOWLING 
BOXING 






















































■===== 


======== 


===2MH| 


BROAD-JUMP 
■CANOEING 
CAPTAIN RAl L 




















- 








- 










„ 


- 


ti 


- 
















CROQUET 

CROSS COUNTRY 










































w 


L 






_« 
























CROSS TAG 
'CURLING 


























" 


































DISTANCE RUNNING 
[DODGE BALL 


























































lOUCKONTHEROCK 




































































FOOTBALL 
























































iG-OLF 


























































'HAMMER THROW 
HANDBALL 




















































































HANG TAG 




























































HARE AND HOUND 




























































HIGH JUMP 




















































































































HOCKEY (ICE) 

HORIZONTAL BAR 


























































HORSE SIDE 
HURDLES (HIGH) 
























































HURDLES (LOW) 


























































JAVELIN THROW 
KITE FLYING 








































































—^— 


LACROSSE 
MARBLES 








































































MARCH ING 


























































MUMRLY PEG 










































































PARALLEL BARS 


























































POLE VAULT 
















































j | 








POfVV POLO 


























































PRISONER'S base 
QUOITS 




























































RELAYS 


























































PUN SHEEP RUN 
SINGLE STICK 






























„ 




























SHOT PUT 

SOCCER 

SPRINTING 


























































SWIMMING 
TAG 
























































TENNIS 
THREE DEEP 
TOPS 

TUMBLING 

vni.l.FY BALL 
WATER POLO 






































5 


- 








-- 











Chart V. — In making this chart, a questionnaire was sent to the 
leading directors of physical education in colleges, private pre- 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 453 

paratory schools, and high schools. The data obtained from the 
answers are used in the chart. In a great number of cases the 
agreement was approximate and the point was selected. When 
there was a divergence of opinion and a majority favored a 
certain point, that was chosen. When there was a divergence 
and the opinions scattered, an average was struck. Thus the 
chart will not correspond exactly to the ideas of any individual, 
but the variation is not greater than the personal-equation 
factor would lead us to expect. The author does not agree with 
the chart in every particular, but he feels that the consensus of 
opinion of experts is preferable to his own. 

The kindergarten games and many that would be found in the 
grade school period are omitted. The games are arranged alpha- 
betically rather than by groups, mainly for convenience in refer- 
ence. 

A glance at the chart will show some of the points emphasized 
in the preceding pages. For example, thirty-two of the games 
listed have their beginning in the grade school age, twenty-five 
in the high school period, two in the college and one in the tech- 
nical school, and not one in a later period. No better illustration 
could be found for the necessity of a systematic course in games 
in the grades and high school years. Again, the length of useful- 
ness of a game is shown, e. g., archery, baseball, and several others 
begin early and continue till late in life, while ice-hockey, water- 
polo, and several others begin late and last but a few years. 
The chart will suggest other evaluations of games in terms of 
their relation to the periods of development. 



locality. Again, the expense of playing the game, such 
as travelling and other expenses, must be considered. A 
small school may be able to get together a few men of 
slight build and develop them in skill, whereas it would 
be impossible for it to get enough big men to make a game 
of football interesting. Furthermore, the time taken to 
train a team is also a problem. Some games can be mas- 
tered bit by bit. Two or three men can pass the ball so 
as to become expert in lacrosse, and the more of this that 



454 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

is done the better the team; or they might learn the dif- 
ferent methods of kicking a soccer ball; whereas it is 
impossible to get a respectable team of football unless 
every man is present, even the substitutes. 

The Coaching Problem is frequently a perplexing one. 
It is sometimes difficult to get men who can coach the 
game most desired and who have the other desirable 
qualifications. A start can be made, however, and soon 
knowledge and skill will come. One physical director 
whom I knew had never seen a game of soccer until his 
opponents lined up against him. Yet his team made a 
creditable showing, winning all but one of the games 
played. In most of the games co-operation is a factor 
rather than team-work, the players go on their own initi- 
ative and frequently work out combinations for them- 
selves. In this case the coach is not such an important 
factor as in those games where the team must work ac- 
cording to a preconceived plan and follow directions. In 
the latter case the coach is the field general and directs 
the game from the dressing-room before the start, some- 
times, indeed, from the side-lines during the progress of 
the game — a violation of ethical standards and happily 
passing. 

Athletics and Medical Supervision. — Before entering 
upon any kind of physical exercise the student should 
undergo a thorough medical and physical examination. 
This is necessary in order to determine the parts of the 
physique that need development, and to discover any 
abnormalities that need correction, thus safeguarding the 
student. There are several conditions which indicate 
that exercise should not be taken. This condition may 
be temporary and it is necessary that care be taken 
at certain times. There are conditions that demand 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 455 

exercise, when the exercise must be of such a nature that 
it will not injure the individual. Other conditions de- 
mand a vigorous and strenuous form. It is also neces- 
sary to safeguard the institution. This examination, 
especially the medical, is essential in the case of those 
who take part in athletics, not because the exercises are 
so strenuous in themselves, but because in compe- 
tition the contestant cannot stop when he knows that it 
would be best for him to do so. If he fails to keep going 
he is called a quitter. This principle is one of great 
educational value, yet it may cause a student to go 
beyond the danger point, and suffer heart complications. 
Exercise, properly directed, is of great value in cases of 
heart trouble. It must, however, be employed for the 
benefit of the individual and not to win contests. There 
are plenty of cases where a student has taken part in all 
kinds of interscholastic contests only to be rejected when 
appearing as a candidate for a varsity team. Doubtless, 
many of the fatalities in football result from a lack of 
supervision rather than from the roughness of the game. 
Most of these fatalities have occurred in high school 
football. 

During the period of competition, close watch should 
be kept on the players. In football, where the whole 
team is strained to the limit, injuries come when the 
player becomes tired out. A blow which would not be 
noticed when the body is in good condition will, with his 
muscles relaxed and the joints strained, sometimes result 
seriously. Whenever a player shows signs of fatigue, he 
should be allowed to recover before exposing himself to 
possible injury. The heart grows during a period of 
training, but the growth is not uniformly steady when 
the time of training is short. There is a period of growth 



456 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

when a strain causes a dilatation of the heart and a thin- 
ning of the walls. When this occurs, it is necessary to 
rest the individual for a short time. The growth will 
then continue. A strain at this time may cause serious 
trouble. When the body is put to such a severe test, as 
in many athletic contests, it is necessary for the player 
to be constantly watched, and that not by the coach but 
by some one who knows the conditions and whose busi- 
ness it is to subordinate the game to the individual. 

The growth of the body is not uniform. It has nodes 
of growth. At these times the strength of the individual 
is not equal to unusual strain. The high school student 
is in this period of growth and needs the most careful 
attention. In the case of a boy under observation during 
the past season this can be illustrated. From December 
to March the growth in height was two and one half 
inches; during April and May the growth was three 
tenths of one inch; in June the increase was three tenths 
of an inch. If medical supervision is necessary in col- 
lege, it is much more so in high schools, where the stu- 
dent is in a formative period and should have the best 
possible guidance in his development. 

Equipment-Floor. — So often we hear a principal say 
that he would be glad to put such a course in physical 
education as advocated above into the school, but lack 
of funds prevents it. He keeps putting off its introduc- 
tion until he is able to begin with a large gymnasium and 
a full staff of directors. A great deal may be done with 
very little equipment if the director is resourceful and 
interested in the highest things of his department. Ten 
years ago the equipment of some of our State uni- 
versities was sadly inadequate. The gymnasiums of 
Kansas and Missouri Universities at that time were in 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 457 

the basements of buildings, and yet a fairly good class 
of work was done on floors 35 x 80 and 11 feet high. In- 
deed, the tendency, when the equipment is very good, is 
to utilize it for the benefit of the few experts rather than 
for the whole student body. 

Almost every high school has a room that might be 
used for the purpose, that could be fitted up at little 
expense, and could be used for a few years. It can 
then be used for some other purpose, and the expen- 
diture is seldom if ever lost. The great desideratum 
is to have a floor space that can be used for practice 
of the simpler games and for mass class work. It 
may range from 30 x 40 up to any size that can be 
secured. A good game of basket-ball can be played on 
a floor 30 x 40. 

The aim in the selection of a room, or in the erection 
of a building, should be to accommodate the greatest 
number possible, at the greatest variety of exercises, and 
cover the greatest number of hours daily. The general 
aim should be to have a room arranged so that it can be 
opened up to accommodate a large meet or divided into 
rooms to accommodate a number of small classes at dif- 
ferent kinds of work. This may be accomplished by 
means of sliding doors or by nets or curtains. Unless 
some arrangement of this kind is planned, a game of 
basket-ball will occupy the whole available area, and thus 
ten men will use the space that might accommodate one 
hundred. An ideal arrangement, where economy is con- 
cerned, is to have three floors, one for lockers, swimming 
pool, bowling-alleys, handball courts, etc. ; the next floor 
to be used for apparatus, boxing, and wrestling rooms. 
The upper story is to be used as a game room and to 
be always available. This should cost, fully equipped, 
$100,000, having two gymnasiums on the first floor, one 



458 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

for boys and one for girls, each 50 x 70 and always avail- 
able for apparatus work and individual development. 
The second floor should be 128 x 71 and 29 feet high. 
On this floor should be marked out a full-sized tennis- 
court, an indoor base-ball court, and a full-sized basket- 
ball court with room for 1,500 spectators. Besides, there 
would be two basket-ball courts crosswise, 45 x 55, with 
out-of-bounds all around. This is the construction at the 
University of Kansas. The main points to be considered 
are the accommodation of the greatest number of men at 
the best time of the day and such an arrangement that 
the director can control the greatest number. It should 
interfere as little as possible with the best schedule of 
studies. 

Many school buildings have a large attic — a waste 
room that could be utilized for this purpose. An attic is 
better than a basement room, as it is lighter and drier, 
with better ventilation. The attic in a building 60 x 125, 
or even smaller, with a pitched roof, could be utilized to 
excellent advantage. 

Apparatus. — When a gymnasium is mentioned we 
think of a great array of machines and apparatus as a 
necessary part of the expenditure, but the apparatus, to 
be efficient need be neither extensive nor expensive. A 
good floor space without apparatus is better than fine 
apparatus without the space. So far as health and rec- 
reation are concerned, these can be obtained by games 
which need nothing but the space in which to play them. 
The first requisite in apparatus is a number of good mats. 
They should be of such sizes that they can be placed 
side by side for wrestling or end to end for tumbling. In 
this way we can have variety and yet have them com- 
bined when necessary, e. g., three mats, one, 5 feet 
by 10 feet by 2 inches, and two, 5 feet by 5 feet by 2 



•> 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 459 

inches. These can be used for tumbling, high jumping, 
and a great variety of work of the very best kind. 

The light apparatus is inexpensive and if necessary 
can be turned out in the manual- training department. 
These include dumb-bells, clubs, wands, rings, and 
hoops. A pair of parallel bars comes next in usefulness 
and variety, as well as being moderate in price. At this 
point it is well to duplicate a good piece rather than to 
spend the same money on too great a variety of appa- 
ratus. Class work can be conducted better when it can 
be divided into squads, each one of them doing the same 
exercise on different pieces of apparatus of the same 
make. The instructor is able to give better attention in 
this way. With three sets of parallel bars an instructor 
can take care of six squads of from six to ten students 
each doing the exercise which he has set. The next 
best piece of apparatus is the low horizontal bar or better 
still an adjustable bar which can be used as a high and as 
a low bar. These may be folded against the wall and be 
put out of the way of games. It is needless to go over 
the different pieces of apparatus, but the general plan is 
clear. The apparatus of a high school is not necessarily 
like that of a Y. M. C. A. or athletic club. In the latter 
there are a greater variety of persons and a greater va- 
riation in their tastes. Class work is the ideal for the 
high school, as the students need the incentive of compe- 
tition and company to do good work. 

Apparatus Suitable for a Small Gymnasium. 1 — The fol- 
lowing equipment will accommodate a class of from 
twenty to thirty pupils: 

1 Gymnastic apparatus may be obtained from the following firms: 
Narragansett Machine Co., Providence, R. L; A. G. Spalding & Bros., 
126 Nassau St., New York, 149 Wabash Avenue, Chicago; Fred Medart 
Manfg. Co., DeKalb and President Sts., St. Louis; A. Mandl & Co., 
Chicago, 111. 



460 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

30 pairs clubs, iK lbs $16.50 

30 pairs dumb-bells, 1 lb 15.00 

3 doz. wands 4 . 80 

2 mats, 2 in. thick, 5 x 10 60.00 

4 mats, 2 in. thick, 5x5 60 . 00 

1 set parallel bars 45 . 00 

2 adjustable vaulting bars 52 .00 

2 basket-balls 10 . 00 

Set basket-ball goals and backstops 24 . 00 

Volley-ball net and ball 6 . 00 

1 spring-board 27 . 00 

$320.30 
This equipment is quoted at list price and in many 
cases is subject to discount. Another cut on this could 
be made by selecting apparatus from several firms, as 
some pieces are cheaper in one catalogue than in another 
or, again, some pieces are better from one firm than 
from another. Again, some of this can be made by a 
carpenter, or by the manual-training department of the 
school. The basket-ball backstops can be made on the 
grounds and at less expense than by shipping them long 
distances. 

Outdoor Equipment. — A small field near the building 
is better than a large field at a distance. The sports that 
are best adapted to high school age are those that can 
be carried on in a small field. High jump, pole-vault, 
broad jump, shot put, and even hurdles might well be a 
part of the regular work of the students. A city lot 
75 x 125, well planned and arranged, close to the school, 
can do more for athletic development of a school than 
the finest field, beautifully equipped, which is inaccessible 
to the general student body. Of course, a good field, well 
equipped and well conducted, is better still if it is easily 
accessible to students between class hours. Athletics 



HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS 461 

can and should be carried on in classes just as well as 
apparatus work. The aim of the athletic field should be 
the same as that of the whole school, first the classroom 
and the laboratory and then the auditorium. In ath- 
letics, however, we are apt to reverse this and make the 
spectator part primary and the laboratory secondary. 

The responsibility for this rests with the principal and 
the board of education. So long as they measure the 
success of a director by the number of cups that he can 
put in the trophy room, rather than by the straight backs, 
ruddy complexions, and vigorous physiques of the stu- 
dent body, so long will he of necessity spend his time 
and energy on the few and neglect the many. It is just 
as great a discredit to the director to have students 
stoop-shouldered and anaemic as it is for the teacher to 
have failures in his classes. 

In our class work we are inclined to hold the good stu- 
dent back, push the poor student on, and mould all to 
the median. In athletics we push the good student to the 
limit, and even beyond, and neglect %he others. Neither 
practice is correct; rather, the good student should have 
exceptional opportunities, the normal should be stimu- 
lated, and the poor driven forward by the best means at 
hand — none should be neglected. Physical education 
will never fulfil its function until director, principal, and 
governing body realize its possibilities and responsibili- 
ties. They must insist that it be put on a proper basis, 
with the proper financial backing, being relieved from 
the necessity of making the gate receipts cover the ex- 
penditures. 

Apparatus. — The same principles should govern the 
outdoor equipment as the indoor. The accommodation 
of a large number of men is of prime importance. Sets 



462 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

of jump standards fixed with proper runways, arranged 
in groups, will accommodate classes as in a laboratory 
of any other kind. When we realize that this is the very 
best form of training that can be given to high school 
students it is a wonder that we have not before appreci- 
ated it. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 

A. Monroe Stowe, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, DE PAUW UNIVERSITY 

The Adolescent and the Debating Instinct. — The ado- 
lescent period is a critical one in the development of 
the tendency to debate, for it is in the period of ado- 
lescence that this tendency develops most rapidly. Fol- 
low any healthy-minded adolescent through a day's 
activities and you will be surprised at the number of 
times his ideas, convictions, and beliefs come into conflict 
with those of other people. You cannot help but admire 
the way in which he stands by his guns in these conflicts. 
He is eager not only to defend but also to force others 
to accept as their own his ideas, convictions, and beliefs. 
Unfortunately, however, he is not always wise in what he 
thinks and in what he would have others think and do. 
He is overhasty in generalizing and in drawing infer- 
ences. He needs to be taught how to study a problem 
in a scientific way, to draw tentative conclusions, and to 
suspend his judgment. He is too eager to debate. He 
must learn the value of discussion, not only as a means 
for clearing the way for debate, but also as a means for 
enlarging knowledge and clearing vision, thereby often 
making debate unnecessary. And, finally, he needs to 
learn how to organize and to present his arguments in a 
logical and forceful way. 

463 



464 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Such are the needs which high schools without debate 
courses are endeavoring to meet through high school de- 
bating societies and through inter-high school debating. 
It is the aim of the present chapter to discuss infor- 
mally some of the most important problems which con- 
front schools that are endeavoring to meet these needs 
through such student activities. 

Genuine Debates and Pseudo-Debates. — As student 
debating activities in too many cases result in what 
might be called pseudo-debates which develop super- 
ficiality, insincerity, and other immoral and anti-social 
tendencies in audiences, as well as in contestants, the 
problems which we shall consider are but phases of 
the larger one : Under what conditions and by the util- 
ization of what methods of procedure may these activi- 
ties be made to result in genuine debates which shall 
develop in both audience and debaters thought, sin- 
cerity, moral purpose, and social capacities? Although 
our discussion is thus limited to the moral and social 
education phases of the high school debate problem, 1 still 
the pages which can be devoted to such a discussion are 
so few that even these phases cannot be given the detailed 
treatment they deserve. This has been particularly true 
in the discussion of inter-high school debates. Appar- 
ently our greatest need for reform is in our inter-high 
school debate procedure. In reality our greatest imme- 
diate problems are those associated with the activities 
of high school debating societies. When these problems 
are solved in practice we shall have little difficulty in 
working out a practical solution of the problems of inter- 
high school debates. The truth of this thesis will become 

iThe pedagogical aspects of the question are dealt with in High 
School Education, Chapter XII. 



STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 465 

more apparent as we note in our discussion of high school 
debating societies the many educational and social values 
which may become realized through the activities of such 
societies. 

HIGH SCHOOL DEBATING SOCIETIES 

Time of Meetings. — Many a debating club has failed 
because the school has not provided a suitable time for 
its meetings. If student activities have the educational 
possibilities latent in them that in some schools they are 
giving evidence of possessing, their educational value 
ought to be officially recognized in the programme of the 
school, i. e., there ought to be set aside in the programme 
at least two hours per week for the meetings of the vari- 
ous student organizations. At this time every student 
ought to be free from all regular work of the school so 
that he may attend the meeting of the organization of 
which he is a member. 1 In doing this the school would 
not only encourage student activities, but also show 
the students that it appreciates the educational value of 
what they are endeavoring to accomplish through their 
organizations. 2 

Relation of Faculty to Debating Society. — If student 
activities are to become a vitally important part of the 
educational work of the school, the faculty as a faculty 

1 For students not members of organizations meeting at such times 
special work should be provided so that they will not be forced to choose 
between an organization and a free period for loafing or for doing work 
which should be done at another time. 

2 The author has for a long time felt that the school ought to show its 
appreciation of the work of student organizations by allowing for each 
year an hour of elective student activity credit, thus making it possible 
for a student to earn during his course four hours of such credit, the 
amount of which to be earned in any one form of student activity to be 
fixed by the faculty. It is recommended that in order to secure an hour 



466 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

and as individuals must co-operate with the various stu- 
dent organizations. While plans, constitutions, and by- 
laws should originate with the students, they ought to be 
submitted for approval to the faculty or to a committee 
of the faculty invested with power to grant the students 
permission to complete their organization if everything is 
satisfactory. 

When the plans of the students interested in the pro- 
posed organizations are being thus considered, the stu- 
dents concerned are apt to be in a receptive frame of mind 
for suggestions from those interested in their enterprise. 

In the case of students interested in the formation of 
a debating society, it is not difficult to lead them to see 
that if they are to do successful debate work it will not 
be wise to organize a literary-debating society or to make 
their organization " co-educational," since in the literary- 
debating society the debate work suffers at the expense 
of the literary and musical interests, and since in societies 
in which the membership is not limited either to boys or 
to girls, as the case may be, the members tend to sacrifice 
debate work for social enjoyment. 1 

Among the conditions which every student organiza- 
tion should be required to meet is that of having a fac- 
ulty adviser, to be chosen by the organization, whose 
choice, however, should be subject to the approval of 
either principal or superintendent. To be of genuine 

of such credit a student must be a member of a student organization 
which has been officially recognized and approved by the faculty, he 
must have been regular in his attendance upon the meetings of the organ- 
ization for a year, and he must be recommended by the organization as 
one who has during his membership willingly and efficiently performed 
his duties as a member, all of which must be certified to and approved 
by the faculty adviser of the organization. 

1 The writer favors an occasional "open" meeting, to which both sexes 
are invited and at which the debate work is the most important feature. 



STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 467 

service to a debating club, the person chosen as its ad- 
viser should be one vitally interested in young people 
and capable of giving them intelligent constructive crit- 
icism in their work, a person with a knowledge of the 
best methods of studying a question and of the principles 
of debate, and, if possible, a person with considerable 
skill as a debater. 

Methods of Procedure to Secure Greatest Educational 
Value. — The customary method of procedure may be 
sketched as follows: The power to assign questions and 
sides to members is held by a programme committee. 
Not infrequently a member who is assigned to a side has 
little interest in the question to be debated, and often 
when interested in the question he is called upon to 
advocate the side opposed to his convictions. While he 
may have had from two to four weeks' notice, the de- 
bater postpones his preparation until the last minute. 
The debates are consequently uninteresting, phrased 
in words which unfortunately express very superficial 
thought. Three judges are usually appointed to decide 
which side has "done the better work." Sometimes 
after the formal debate the question is thrown open for 
a discussion which many times is the only real and natu- 
ral part of the whole procedure. 1 

From the point of view of meeting the needs of the 
students participating, this method of procedure is weak 

1 The entire procedure is artificial, since it is based upon a mistaken 
idea of the nature of debate. In an article entitled, "The Motivation 
of Debate in Our Secondary Schools," published in The School Review, 
19, 546-9, of which much in the next few pages is necessarily a repro- 
duction, the writer thus briefly contrasts the artificial school debate with 
the debates experienced in life: "In life the aim of debate is to lead 
others to act or think as we feel they ought to act or think. In our 
school debates the aim most frequently is to gain the decision of the 
judges. In life we have little respect for the person who is not sincere 



468 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

in that it fails (i) to give the club an opportunity to 
select the questions to be debated, (2) to give the indi- 
vidual member an opportunity to study the problem 
scientifically, and (3) to give the debater in every case 
an opportunity either to speak in accordance with his 
convictions or to convince somebody, which is the very 
essence of life's debates. 

Selection of Question. — Such negative criticism of our 
customary methods of procedure indicates the points 
at which reform is needed. The club ought to be al- 
lowed to select the question to be debated. The pro- 
cedure of a club with which the writer was at one time 
associated as adviser is suggestive of what may be done 
in a positive direction. In this club each of the twenty 
members presented at the beginning of each term a 
question which he believed would be of vital interest to 
the other members of the club. From the questions 
thus proposed the club selected a number for investiga- 
tion. This brings us to the second point at which 
reform is needed. 

Study of Question. — A satisfactory method of pro- 
cedure must not only give the adolescent an opportu- 
nity to study the problem scientifically, but also give 
him every encouragement to do so. We have already 

in his efforts to convince us, who really does not believe in the course 
of action which he would have us take. In our school debates it is not 
uncommon for debaters to argue against their convictions. In life, 
logic, voice, gesture, and personality are important means which we use 
in our endeavors to accomplish the aim of debate. In our school de- 
bates these means become ends in themselves, points to be noted and 
scored by judges who use such data in determining their artificial decision. 
In life we may see the light during debate and capitulate. In school de- 
bating the student who becomes convinced that he no longer believes in 
his side is urged to continue in his preparation for what may be justly 
called an intellectual prize-fight." 



STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 469 

noticed the natural tendency of the adolescent to be 
an advocate and to look at a question from a biassed 
point of view. While it may be admitted that the de- 
bater, in order to win, must study both sides of a ques- 
tion, there is a difference between the way a scientific 
investigator and the way a determined advocate " study 
both sides of a question." The investigator studies all 
sides in order to discover the best solution of the prob- 
lem; the advocate studies "the other side" for the 
purpose of discovering its weak points in order to ex- 
pose them and its strong points in order to find argu- 
ments with which to weaken their strength. The latter 
training is not that which the adolescent needs. He 
needs to learn how to go to a problem with an open 
mind ready to learn from both sides and to suspend his 
judgment until he has evidence enough to warrant draw- 
ing a final conclusion. Then he is ready to begin the 
work which looks forward to convincing his fellows. 

Returning to our account of the method of procedure 
of the club just mentioned, let us note how that club 
endeavored to encourage its members to study questions 
scientifically. Of the questions selected for investiga- 
tion, one was chosen for discussion at the following meet- 
ing. It will be noted that the question had not yet been 
formulated as a resolution but was still regarded as a 
problem to be solved, as, for example: " Ought our city 
to own and operate its telephone system?" In prepa- 
ration for the second meeting each member was sup- 
posed to study the problem and at roll-call report 
whether or not he had done so. 

Discussion of Question. — At the meeting devoted to 
the discussion of the problem investigated the various so- 
lutions were presented together with the arguments and 



470 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

data in their support. If, as a result of the discussion, 
the members came to an agreement as to the best solu- 
tion of the problem, the question was dropped. If, on 
the other hand, the discussion failed to result in such an 
agreement, there resulted a clash which naturally called 
for debate, and thereupon one of the solutions proposed 
was incorporated into a resolution to be adopted by the 
club, as, for example: " Resolved, That it is the sense of 
this club that our city should own and operate its tele- 
phone system." 

Selection of Debaters. — From those eager to have the 
resolution adopted two affirmative debaters and their two 
alternates were selected, while from those who believed 
in other solutions of the problem were chosen the two 
negatives and their alternates. It will be noted that, as 
a result of this method of selecting debaters, all the men 
selected are vitally interested, and that each man is an 
ardent advocate of the side he has espoused, not because 
it strikes his fancy, but because it is an expression of his 
solution of a problem to which he has given an impartial 
study. 

Real Debate. — After the debaters had been selected a 
date for the formal debate was fixed. At the meeting 
at which the formal debate occurred the resolution was 
formally presented by the first speaker on the affirmative 
side and was seconded by the second speaker on that side. 
The debate then proceeded according to any rules which 
may have been agreed upon with respect to the length 
of speeches and to the number of rebuttals. At the close 
of the last rebuttal speech the previous question was 
moved and a written ballot taken. In voting, each mem- 
ber expressed his conviction as it stood after he had 
listened to both sides. In order to pass the resolution 



STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 471 

it was necessary to secure a two- thirds vote. If the neg- 
ative side received two thirds of the votes cast the reso- 
lution was considered " killed," while if neither side re- 
ceived such a vote the resolution was placed on the list 
of debatable questions. 

In preparing themselves for such debates the debaters 
knew that the debate would call for more than a mere 
marshalling of logical arguments. Arguments had to be 
presented in such a way as to carry conviction in the 
minds of a group of live men, each of whom was more or 
less prejudiced by his previous study of the question. 
In order to carry such conviction to the minds of others, 
the debater himself had to be convinced. If during his 
preparation any one of the debaters discovered evidence 
which destroyed his conviction, it was his duty to with- 
draw and to allow his place to be taken by one of the 
alternates working on his side. 

It will readily be seen that this method of procedure 
introduces life situations which naturally evoke debate 
and which permit the aims of debate to be realized. All 
members have training in investigating and solving 
problems. These problems are proposed by the mem- 
bers themselves. Only questions upon which there is a 
genuine disagreement are debated. The integrity of 
each debater is preserved, since all taking an active part 
in the debate on the adoption of the resolution have ar- 
rived at their convictions through an independent study 
of the problems involved. The real motive for debate is 
preserved, since all the efforts of the debaters are con- 
centrated upon convincing their fellow members. 

Excellent as the method of procedure just described 
may be from the point of view of the realization of the 
educational values of student debating, the writer has 



472 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

discovered from experience that no matter how satis- 
factory a method of procedure may prove to be at first, 
the students tend to tire of it unless there is introduced 
from time to time a change. He therefore recommends 
the following modifications of the method just proposed : 
the "open-debate" plan and what riiight be called a 
"jury" or "commission" scheme. 

The Open-Debate Plan. — In the open -debate plan the 
method of procedure is unchanged up to the point of 
formulating the resolution, the formulation of which 
should be left to the meeting at which the formal debate 
is to occur. The first speaker recognized by the chair at 
that time has the privilege and the advantage of express- 
ing his solution in the form of a resolution to be adopted 
by the club. As it is not known which solution will be- 
come the resolution to be debated, each member preparing 
to take part in the debate has to prepare a defence and 
a number of attacks upon solutions with which he dis- 
agrees. After the first speaker has finished speaking the 
question is open to the club for debate, each member 
having the privilege either of speaking a certain number 
of minutes or of allowing his time to be taken by another 
speaker on his side. The club is free to make what rules 
it desires concerning the number, length, and character 
of rebuttals. At the close of the period set aside for de- 
bate the previous question is moved and a written ballot 
taken, a majority of the votes cast being necessary to 
carry the resolution. 

The Commission Plan. — In the "jury" or "commis- 
sion" scheme the club divides itself into groups of seven 
or eight. Each of these groups takes a problem of inter- 
est to its members, studies it, discusses it, and in case of 
disagreement incorporates one of the solutions into a 






STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 473 

resolution and reports to the club the date when it will 
be ready to debate a solution of the problem it has been 
studying. Upon the date set for the debate the resolu- 
tion is read to the club, which, if it is a large one, selects 
a jury, or impartial commission, to listen to and weigh 
the arguments of both sides and report back to the club 
a decision either in favor of or against the resolution. 
Each member of the commission is requested to divest 
himself of all prejudice so far as possible and to base 
his decision only upon the evidence presented. His re- 
port reads: " After listening to and weighing the argu- 
ments of both sides and taking into consideration only 
the evidence introduced in the debate, I recommend 

that the club 1 adopt the following resolution, 

" 2 A majority of the votes of the " commis- 
sioners" is necessary in order to present a favorable 
report, while a failure on the part of the affirmative to 
secure such a majority is considered a victory for the 
negative. In either case the report, together with the 
names of the "commissioners," is entered in the minutes 
of the meeting. 

Although all of the three methods proposed present 
life situations which naturally call forth debate and 
thereby motivate the work, the " jury " or " commission" 
scheme has several advantages over the other two in 
that (i) it permits of a larger number of problems being 
studied and discussed at one time, and (2) it furnishes an 
opportunity to train members for meeting situations in 
life where one has to make a decision based upon evi- 
dence presented rather than upon private opinion or 
prejudice. 3 

1 Either do or do not to be inserted. 2 Insert resolution. 

3 It is recommended that for the sake of variety the three methods 
be used interchangeably. 



474 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Work of Faculty Adviser. — While the methods just 
proposed motivate the debate work as well as provide 
safeguards against mistakes which the adolescent is prone 
to make, still, without the active guidance of the faculty 
adviser debate work carried on in accordance with any 
of the plans suggested will fail to realize the educational 
value which it is possible to realize with the co-operation 
of an intelligent and sympathetic adviser. It is the ad- 
viser who from time to time gives helpful suggestions 
concerning the best methods of studying the problems 
proposed, concerning the best sources and methods of 
collecting and organizing data, and concerning the best 
ways of finding the main issues in the discussions. It is 
he to whom the debaters go for suggestions for making 
briefs before the debate and from whom after the debate 
they receive constructive criticisms which indicate clearly 
to them any fallacies in reasoning, any mannerisms or 
forms of expression which hindered them in their ef- 
forts to carry conviction to the minds of their listeners. 
The listeners, too, receive from him their share of help- 
ful criticism when, either as voters or as members of a 
"jury" or "commission," they give evidence that they 
have been misled by fallacies of reasoning or by tricks of 
speaking, or that they have allowed their prejudices or 
preconceptions to stand in the way of the proper weigh- 
ing of the evidence presented in the debate. 

INTER-HIGH SCHOOL DEBATING 

Relation of High School Faculty to Inter-High School 
Debating. — Those who have come into close touch with 
inter-high school debates appreciate not only the value 
of the training which may be gained through them but 
also the justice of the claims made by thoughtful ob- 



STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 475 

servers that too often these debates tend to develop 
superficial thinkers and insincere speakers and to foster 
in those participating in them deceit, trickery, and dis- 
honesty. If the social and educational possibilities in 
inter-high school debating are to be developed, the fac- 
ulties of the schools participating must co-operate with 
the students, and in order to protect their students from 
the evils of inter-high school debating they must deter- 
mine the number of contests which the students may hold 
only after the faculty has approved the rules under which 
the debate games are to be played. 

Methods of Procedure Needed to Realize Social and 
Educational Possibilities. — A critical examination of the 
customary methods of procedure in inter-high school de- 
bates will reveal the following weak points: the meth- 
ods of procedure utilized fail to give the student body a 
chance to accept or to reject debate as a " school activity" 
or to express its ideas as to what schools ought to be 
challenged; the present methods of procedure fail to 
give the students participating an opportunity to study 
the question impartially, to debate in accordance with 
their convictions, or to convince any one that their con- 
tention is right; the present methods tend to encour- 
age too great dependence upon the debate coach and 
too much attention upon winning the decision of the 
judges; and, finally, they encourage an ti -social conduct 
at debates. 

If inter-high school debates are to become genuine 
interschool contests, the student bodies of the -schools 
participating must have opportunity to accept the re- 
sponsibilities connected (i) with determining who shall 
be the opponents, (2) with the choosing of debaters, 
(3) with approving the rules of the game, and (4) with 



476 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

financing the contests. This means that the students 
interested in debate should very early in the year come 
to some decision among themselves upon these four 
points, and should secure the provisional approval of 
their plans by the school authorities, who should give 
them permission to present to the student body the ap- 
proved definite proposals concerning each of the above- 
mentioned points. The time at which the students con- 
sult the authorities concerning debate plans for the year 
is a favorable one for making any of the following rec- 
ommendations which may appeal to the reader as worth 
trying. 

The suggestions which follow assume the use of the 
triangular-debate plan. 1 This plan would necessitate 
the challenging of two schools, B and C, by the students 
of school A. While schools B and C would be free to 
choose their debaters as they please, the student body 
of school A would approve a plan for selecting theirs at 
the above-mentioned mass-meeting. A plan which is 
fair to all concerned is that of allowing all students inter- 
ested in making the inter-high school debate teams the 
privilege of joining a " debate squad" which in its rela- 
tion to the faculty should be considered a student de- 
bating club entitled to the privileges of such clubs as 
well as bound by the obligations of such societies. 
Among these obligations is that of choosing a faculty 
adviser, such choice to be subject to the approval of the 
principal or the superintendent. 

Selection of Question and Debaters. — The choice of a 
question should be left to the students from whom will 
be chosen the debaters. What the " squad" of school 
A may insist upon is that the question be one which 

1 Cf. "High School Education," C. H. Johnston and others, 250-1. 









STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 477 

they have had an opportunity to study impartially and 
upon which there has developed in the " squad" a genu- 
ine disagreement. Such disagreement, coming as a re- 
sult of an impartial study of the problem, will naturally 
divide the " squad" into two groups, one upholding the 
contention of the affirmatives, the other that of the nega- 
tives. By the time the question has been officially ac- 
cepted by the schools, the number of men in the squad 
will probably have decreased until there are left the men 
who will become the debaters and alternates. As the 
time for the debate draws near the men will probably 
desire the adviser to make the final selection of the de- 
baters. 

Place of Debate. — To do away with the intense parti- 
sanship which mars so many debates as well as to take 
advantage of the inter-high school debates as a means for 
training students socially, it is recommended that the 
debate schools B and C be held at school A, that be- 
tween A and C at B, and that between A and B at C. 
According to this plan each school on the date of the 
debate would become the host of the representatives of 
the other two schools. Everything in the power of the 
schools acting as hosts should be done to make the visits 
of the representatives of the other two schools as plea- 
surable and profitable as possible. Our students need to 
learn both how to entertain visiting teams and how to 
be entertained when members of such teams. A great 
many educational values which might be realized through 
such visits are not realized to-day. 

Provisions for the Debate. — To provide persons for 
the debaters to convince it is suggested that the authori- 
ties of the schools in which the debates are to be held be 
requested to select a "jury" of twelve students, to be 
chosen because of their intelligence and their reputa- 



478 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tion for fairness as well as on account of the fact that 
they have no decided opinion upon the question and no 
prejudices for or against either schools or individuals con- 
testing. 1 These twelve should promise to listen carefully 
to the arguments and evidence introduced in the debate, 
at the close of which they are to conscientiously report 
their decision on some such form as: "After having care- 
fully listened to and weighed the arguments and evidence 
submitted by both sides, and taking into consideration 

only those arguments and that evidence, I am 2 

the resolution, " 3 

In order to provide for giving due credit to argumenta- 
tion, it is recommended that a judge, a capable lawyer, or 
some other person qualified to pass intelligent judgment 
on arguments be chosen from the community in which 
the debate is to be held to act as judge of briefs 4 and of 
arguments presented in the debate. 5 

In order to provide for giving due credit to public 
speaking, it is recommended that a committee of repre- 
sentative citizens of the community in which the debate 
is to take place be chosen to give a decision in favor of 
the team doing the better public speaking. 6 

1 Responsible members of the community may be selected as "jurors" 
if this seems advisable. Students are suggested with a view to giving 
them the valuable training described on pages 472-3. 

2 Insert either in favor of, or opposed to. 

3 Resolution should be written or printed in full. 

4 Briefs should be submitted to the judge on argumentation in time 
for him to give them careful consideration before the debate. 

6 The judge on argumentation might also be requested to give to the 
"jury" before the debate such instructions as might be necessary to 
assist them in making intelligent decisions in the light of the evidence 
which may be presented. 

6 This committee should keep in mind the fact that a debate contest 
is not a declamation contest, but one the aim of which is to develop the 
ability of students to express thoughts which they have carefully thought 
out but the form of which they have not committed to memory. 



STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 479 

Finally, it is recommended that two points be allowed 
for the decision of the "jurors," one point for the decision 

of the judge on argumentation and one point for the 
committee on public speaking, and that the team re- 
ceiving three or more points be awarded the victory. In 
case there is a tie vote of the "jurors," it is recommended 
that one point be awarded each side. 

Difficulties. — One difficulty in the way of adopting 
the recommendations just made is the financial problem. 
It will take considerable money to send two teams away 
from home and to entertain the visiting teams, but this 
will probably require little more than has been required 
in the past to pay the expenses of teams and of judges. 
It is the contention of the writer that debates conducted 
in accordance with the recommendations offered can be 
made of so great educational value that boards of educa- 
tion, if the matter is properly presented to them, will be 
willing to bear part of the expenses, while the student 
body, since it has voted to make inter-high school debate 
a school enterprise, may be counted upon to see that the 
balance is raised either by small assessments or by sub- 
scription. This would make it possible to have the de- 
bates free entertainments to which both the school and 
the community might be cordially invited. 

Would students attend a debate in which neither of 
the teams contesting belong to their school? While only 
a trial of the plan proposed will answer this question, it 
would seem that if the student body had voted to accept 
the plan and the responsibility of entertaining the visit- 
ing teams it ought not take very much persuasion on the 
part of any one to get them to attend the debate, espe- 
cially if the other parts of the programme were furnished 
by the best talent of the school. 



480 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

No plans for the reform of inter-high school debating 
can be successfully carried out without the active co-op- 
eration of the faculties of the schools participating. The 
suggestions which have been presented in this chapter 
require such faculty co-operation. The opportunities 
offered the adviser of a " debate squad" are even greater 
than those of the advisers of debating societies, since his 
men are preparing for a public contest. If he proves 
merely the old-time debate coach who gives his teams 
not only their arguments but also the verbal expression of 
those arguments, we shall have under the proposed plans 
results just as unsatisfactory as those to which attention 
has been called. If, on the other hand, he recognizes 
the educational possibilities of his work and helps the 
men of his " squad" to do such foundation work as will 
enable them to work independently, the situations pro- 
vided in the suggested plans are such as to inspire the 
men to put their best efforts into their work as well 
as to call forth and develop in the students participat- 
ing not only knowledge but also those traits and abili- 
ties which make for the best type of social and civic 
efficiency. 

Editor's Footnote 

As in several other instances, the editor requested the author 
to formulate, in addition to his ideal scheme, some possible grad- 
ual modification of the method of procedure now general and 
which now results in what the author terms "pseudo-debates." 
The author, however, is convinced that no gradual modification 
of the present vicious method of procedure is desirable. He 
would go further and even advocate instead of such a policy the 
temporary discontinuance of inter-high school debating until 
changed conditions make a radical departure from present meth- 
ods possible. To answer queries which the editor thinks will 
arise in the minds of many readers he appends the following 
author's note: 



STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 481 



Author's Note 

To the reader who has not studied carefully principles of social 
action and of debate in life, the suggestions offered in the discus- 
sion of inter-high school debates will probably appear "ideal," 
"radical," and "impracticable," all of which the writer admits, 
with some qualifications. 

The suggestions are "ideal" in the sense that they embody 
principles of real life. Lack of interest in debate on the part of 
the student body is due, to a great extent, to a neglect or disre- 
gard of fundamental principles of social co-operation. The stu- 
dent body has been appealed to at the wrong time and the appeal 
has too often been one fundamentally false. Student bodies 
have been begged to "come out to support those who were to 
defend the honor of the school in debate." That the students 
feel there is something wrong with the appeal is indicated by the 
way in which they come, or rather fail to come. That they have 
misconceptions as to the nature of the support which they ought 
to give is evidenced by their anti-social conduct at the debates. 
And then there is always that embarrassing question: "Who 
gave the debaters authority to defend the honor of the school? " 
The failure on the part of those interested in debate to secure the 
approval and acceptance of the student body of their plans and 
purposes has resulted in inter-high school debates which are such 
in name only, while their failure to incorporate in their procedure 
principles of debate in life has resulted in pseudo-debates which, 
as we have noted, develop superficiality, insincerity, and anti- 
social tendencies in audiences as well as in debaters. 

The suggestions are radical in that they go to the root of the 
difficulty. We have suffered from misconceptions of the true 
nature of debate and of the function of inter-high school debating. 
We have aped the colleges here as elsewhere. Unfortunately, 
college methods of procedure were such as to prove harmful to 
college students, while when transplanted to high school soil 
they produced an even greater harvest of evils. Educational 
laymen are awakening to these evil tendencies which are thus 
briefly mentioned by Mr. Roosevelt in the first chapter in his 
"Chapters of a Possible Autobiography" (Outlook, No. 103, 
p. 406): "Personally, I have not the slightest sympathy with de- 



482 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

bating contests in which each side is arbitrarily assigned a given 
proposition and told to maintain it without the least reference to 
whether those maintaining it believe in it or not. . . . There is 
no effort to instil sincerity and intensity of conviction. On the 
contrary, the net result is to make the contestants feel that their 
convictions have nothing to do with their arguments. ... I am 
exceedingly glad that I did not take part in the type of debate 
in which stress is laid not upon getting the speaker to think 
rightly but on getting him to talk glibly on the side to which he 
is assigned, without regard either to what his convictions are 
or to what they ought to be." It is time that we go to the root 
of the difficulty. We need to be radical. 

Turning to the third criticism, I admit that conditions in many 
high schools are such that the suggestions are impracticable at 
the present time. In such cases I would recommend action 
which would so change conditions that within a year or two the 
suggestions could be easily and naturally incorporated into 
practice. At the proper time, faculties of such high schools 
should say very frankly to those interested in making arrange- 
ments for inter-high school debates: "We believe most heartily 
in genuine inter-high school debates; but while we shall be glad 
to do all in our power to encourage such debates, we are deter- 
mined to prevent our students from suffering from the evils of 
many so-called inter-high school debates. We shall therefore 
allow inter-high school debates to take place only under the fol- 
lowing conditions: (i) when the student bodies of the schools 
concerned have approved the plans and have accepted the re- 
sponsibilities connected with the debate; and (2) when the rules 
of the game are such that debaters will have genuine opportu- 
nities (a) to study the problem impartially, (b) to debate only 
in accordance with convictions arising from such preliminary 
study, and (c) to convince 'judges,' 'jurors,' or 'commission- 
ers ' who return the ' verdict ' that their contentions are right, 
just, or reasonable and are to be accepted in preference to the 
contention of the other side." 

The announcement of such a policy would probably result, in 
many cases, in a discontinuance of inter-high school debating for 
a year or two, which would be very good for the schools con- 
cerned, since it would give them ample opportunity to concen- 
trate all their attention upon the problem of developing strong 



STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 483 

debating societies within the school. Such societies under the 
supervision of competent faculty advisers will, within a year or 
two, develop (a) a number of skilful and sincere debaters who 
are well prepared to become members of a debate squad, (6) 
well-balanced and careful students capable of serving as non- 
partisan judges or jurors, and (c) an interest in debate on the 
part of the student body which may be counted upon to encour- 
age debate as an "all-school" activity. We must rely upon our 
high school debating societies to develop for us the well-prepared 
debaters and the sympathetically yet intelligently critical audi- 
ences absolutely needed, if we are to successfully solve our inter- 
high school debate problem. It is the steady educational work 
done by our high school debating societies which will bring about 
the change in conditions that will make the incorporation of the 
suggestions into practice not only practicable but advisable and 
natural. Hence the space given to the problems of high school 
debating societies. 

My attention has been called to the difficulty which would be 
experienced in an endeavor to put my financial suggestion into 
practice. Here, again, I believe that our hope lies in the high 
school debating society. Get any school board or group of citi- 
zens intelligently interested in the work of our schools to visit 
a wide-awake meeting of a high school debating society under the 
supervision of a skilled faculty adviser. You will have little diffi- 
culty in securing the funds for your inter-high school debate con- 
tests if you show them clearly how such contests will tend to 
improve still further the debate work of the students and explain 
to them the educational and social values which can be secured 
through such contests. 

In conclusion the author desires to say that he will be glad to 
answer any personal inquiries sent to him concerning questions 
raised in this chapter or note and to receive reports from those 
who endeavor to put into practice any of the suggestions offered 
in this chapter. 



CHAPTER XIX 

HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM: STUDYING NEWS- 
PAPERS AND UTILIZING THE SCHOOL PAPER 

Merle Thorpe, A.B. 

PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS 

High school teachers are overlooking a valuable asset 
by not making an intelligent use of a good city newspaper 
as a supplementary text. In addition to the cultural 
value, it would seem to vitalize the work in all courses; 
and while we are on the subject of high school journalism, 
a discussion of the school paper is in order. It is gener- 
ally considered a bugbear by faculties, but under the 
skilful direction of teachers it could be made a powerful 
educational agent. 

I. STUDYING THE NEWSPAPER 

Some teachers already require a study of "current 
events," but for the most part the results do not justify 
the energy expended, as the work is not systematized. 
The usual method of conducting such a class is to allow 
students to bring in haphazard items clipped from ran- 
dom newspapers. Without direction, youth is apt to 
place more value on the news that a cat was rescued 
from a telephone pole by the fire department than on an 
account of a peace treaty between two world powers. 
Crime and the details of crime too often submerge the 
significant news of the day. Indeed, this is the excuse 

484 






HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM 485 

generally given by editors for publishing " inconsiderate 
trifles" — the majority of their readers makes the demand 
imperative. 

A student first of all should be taught to read the news- 
paper for significant events. His reading should be sys- 
tematized for him. Instead of the haphazard items, the 
student should be trained to look for the most important 
happening, say, in national politics, appearing in to-day's 
paper. One member of the class may consider the Presi- 
dent's charge that there is an insidious lobby at work in 
Washington to be the most important. Another may ex- 
press his opinion that the administration's views on " dol- 
lar diplomacy" are more significant. These and other 
opinions will lead to a lively discussion, after which the 
class may vote on the relative importance of the news 
items, jotting down in note-books the result. After 
national politics have been discussed, foreign and state 
affairs and news of the scientific, literary, dramatic, and 
religious world should be taken up in the same way. 

It will be found that the student will take a keen inter- 
est in comparing his judgment with that of the editors 
of the Literary Digest, Outlook, and Independent at the 
end of the week's work. Here the teacher is availing 
himself of the strongest incentive of youth — the spirit 
of contest. He makes the work a game. To the suc- 
cessful teacher the plan has possibilities of variation. 
After the student has made out a dummy of what he 
thinks ought to be treated in the week's Literary Digest, 
he may extend his view over the month and compete 
with the editors of Current Opinion and the Review of 
Reviews. 

The value of the information thus gained is apparent. 
University students, to say nothing of high school stu- 



486 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

dents, are wofully ignorant of what is going on about 
them. They are not only provincial but pathetically 
ridiculous. In a recent examination, members of a soph- 
omore class at the University of Kansas thought Gif- 
ford Pinchot a senator from Oregon, that Bryan was 
President of the United States Senate, that Albania 
was in Asia, and that Jane Addams was an actress. 

As an Aid in Teaching Geography and History. — There 
is another value not so apparent. In the daily paper 
before me there is an account of the recall of Ambassador 
Wilson, an editorial charging the President with usurping 
the powers of Congress, and a Kansas executive advo- 
cating a commission form of government for the State. 
What an opportunity for a teacher to use this paper in 
making real certain chapters in civil government! In 
the same paper is shown a map of Europe to make clear 
the Bulgarian campaign; reference to various Mexican 
cities and provinces involved in revolution; and a sched- 
ule of the stops and route of a cross-continent automobile 
path-finding trip. What an excellent opportunity for the 
teacher to visualize geography and history! 

As an Aid in Teaching English Composition. — If there 
were no other benefits, the value to teachers of English 
composition would justify the study of the newspaper. 
In addition to the wide-spread criticism that students are 
not taught to express themselves in either written or 
spoken English, there is a feeling among teachers them- 
selves that something is wrong with the present system. 
It is lamentably true that a freshman in college fails to 
show the results of a four-year training in high school 
English. Nor does the university seem able to send him 
out four years later equipped to express himself clearly. 

Rhetoric in college and in high schools is generally 



HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM 487 

looked upon by students as the most disagreeable of sub- 
jects. The English teachers have felt this aversion and, 
be it said to their credit, have tried to make the work 
more interesting — witness the two hundred or more texts 
on the subject and the commission now at work investi- 
gating the teaching of English. I believe that the dis- 
like for the subject is due to the fact that it is approached 
from the wrong side. The student is not led to see the 
rhetorical principles as his friends, as the tools with 
which he can express himself clearly and forcefully in 
conversation and in written discourse. Another reason 
for the student's aversion is that he feels that rhetoric is 
fit and proper for the author and poet who are to write 
the world's masterpieces but a lot of grind and rubbish 
for the ordinary student. 

After the student has learned to discriminate between 
the froth and worth-while news material, let him take 
note of the means by which the workaday writers have 
made themselves clear. Here in the good newspaper he 
will find excellent examples of description, narration, ex- 
position, and argument. In this well-written " story" 
he will be surprised to learn that the reporter has had re- 
course to figures of speech, to negation, to inverted sen- 
tence structure, and the hundred other tools found in his 
despised rhetoric. And he comes to admire these tools 
because he sees them doing bread-and-butter jobs. He 
finds them enlisted to help a man paint a picture clearly 
and faithfully, to put an opinion forcefully, to arouse 
emotion by the rightly chosen word and proper sentence 
structure. I am not forgetting that many imperfections 
are to be found in the best-edited newspapers, but the 
goal of a newspaper is to make itself understood, and 
nowhere will you find clearer English. Society will be 



488 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

satisfied if the student is taught clearness; beauty and 
force will follow naturally. The teacher must be ready 
to point out the well-written stories and to teach his 
students to recognize the imperfections of hastily writ- 
ten copy. 

Under the head-line, "A Poet Mused of Eternity," the 
Kansas City Star, before me, prints the following tele- 
graph story from Indianapolis : 

The sun, which had shone warm and bright upon James Whit- 
comb Riley's anniversary last Monday, was hidden in gray clouds 
yesterday. There was a dampness and chill in the October air. 
At noon a friend who had dropped in at the old, tree-hidden house 
on Lockerbie Street, famous the world over, found the poet sit- 
ting alone in his study before a bright fire of sea coal. Clustered 
roses, sent by his friends, shed their fragrance through the dark- 
ened room, their petals slowly dropping in the warm air. On 
every piece of the quaint, old-fashioned furniture that Riley al- 
ways has clung to lay messages of congratulation from friends. 
A sofa was heaped with letters and telegrams that told of re- 
joicing over the fact that the poet was beginning a new year. 
The little room, as always, spoke again of friends, friends, friends. 
And before the dancing fire in the hearth sat Riley, musing on 
the friends of yesterday. 

It was not long, in the silence, before he repeated, as though 
half to himself, those lines of Walter Savage Landor: 

"I warmed both hands before the fire of life; 
It sinks, and I am ready to depart." 

But he did not allow the beautiful, melancholy words to die 
out without a more cheerful gloss. "Landor's old age was un- 
happy, wasn't it?" he asked. "While I — " The sentence did 
not need completion. 

The story runs on for a column, telling of a motor ride 
with Mr. Riley and the poet's ideas of eternity. To 
point out the perfect blending of description and narra- 



HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM 489 

tion, exposition and argument, the maintenance of tone, 
the hundred rhetorical devices used, is of more value to 
the student than to commit a dozen pages of rhetoric 
text. 

And here, in another paper, is an account of the John- 
son-Jeffries fight. It overflows with graphic description 
and stirring narration, brought about by skilful use of 
rhetorical principles. There is room for only three para- 
graphs of the two-column story. 

Reno, Nevada, July 4. — To-day we saw a tragedy. A tre- 
mendous, crushing anticlimax had happened, and we are dazed. 
Some 15,000 of us went out and broiled ourselves in the sun to 
see a great prize-fight, and, while it was great from the standpoint 
of a spectacle and from the courage displayed, it was in reality 
no fight at all. 

It was a pitiful, pitiful tragedy. Time had outwitted the 
keenest of us, and instead of the Jeffries we had known and had 
come to think was still among us, we saw the shell of a man, fair 
to the eye and awe-inspiring in his shape, to be sure, but empty 
of the youth's vigor. The spark had died. The years had done 
their work. No fierceness of will, no gallant determination could 
fan it to a flame again. And so he lost. 

Time had cunningly hidden her work, and no man was gifted 
with the sight to see cold ashes that lay where once a flame had 
flickered. It was a cruel lesson, marking as it did the inevitable 
march of years and age and the waste of a Godlike heritage. 
While in actual point of days there was little difference in the 
two, the negro had maintained his youth through a life of exer- 
cise and physical care, while the white man had grown heavy 
with idleness. 

And for an application of the principles of argumen- 
tation or persuasion, where could a better example be 
found than on the editorial page? Or where get that 
lively interest that comes to a student with the knowl- 
edge that here is a man who, in urging a community to 



490 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

action, must resort to the rules laid down in his English 
book on composition. Pick up any good newspaper and 
there will be found such editorials as the following from 
the New York Times, practising the theory of the text: 

The concerted action of the police against the annoyance of 
beggars in the streets and other public places is gratifying. 
There has been entirely too great laxity of late in this matter. 
Street beggars are almost always impostors. They ply their 
trade in defiance of the law. Latterly they have infested not 
only Fifth Avenue but many other streets, especially Central 
Park West and Upper Broadway. They loom upon solitary 
pedestrians out of the shadows, with their whining pleas, in 
which may be often detected a threatening tone. 

Beggars should be driven from the streets and kept away 
from all public places. The police always attack this nuisance 
energetically when the order to do so is given. But they are 
too frequently discouraged by the magistrates. There is a pen- 
alty for public mendicancy which magistrates should enforce. 
It cannot be politics which causes many magistrates contemp- 
tuously to dismiss cases of this kind with a gratuitous rebuke 
to the officer making the charge. It may be sentimentality, 
some of our magistrates are exceptionally soft-hearted — or 
it may be down-right perversity. Whatever it is, it should be 
stopped. Street beggars are undesirable persons. They are 
frequently thieves. 

Indeed, such a critical study of rhetorical forms and 
methods in the newspaper will not only prove helpful to 
the student, but it should serve to invigorate the teacher 
himself. It should keep him from losing sight of the 
fact that the ultimate purpose of teaching English com- 
position is to equip students to use intelligible English in 
every-day speaking and writing. Too often the teacher, 
with the student, forgets this and looks upon the instruc- 
tion as a training for the composition of a deathless essay 
or epic. 



HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM 491 



II. UTILIZING THE HIGH SCHOOL PAPER 

In general, the high school paper is a plaything. It is 
brought forth in ignorance, both on the part of the faculty 
and students. In too many cases it is distinctly harmful, 
in that it presents to receptive minds low ideals of humor, 
faulty emphasis on news values, and poor standards of 
business methods. It is a waste of energy and vitality. 

Properly directed, however, the high school publication 
can be made a powerful help to the school and its activi- 
ties. First of all, it should contain the news of the 
school, the information on athletics, debating, oratory, 
social affairs, assemblies, and the work of the various de- 
partments of the school, such as accounts of unique 
experiments in the sciences, the acquisition of new appa- 
ratus, addition of new courses, changes in policy or direc- 
tion of the work, and the development of different courses. 

The paper should also contain a department of opinion 
and comment on school affairs. Not only ought it to 
contain the opinion of the paper's editors but it should 
invite its readers to use this department for healthy 
criticism. 

Nor can the entertainment side be ignored. The paper 
must reflect first of all the life and atmosphere of the 
school. It cannot be made into a tract, or being unread, 
will fail of its first object — to be read. But there are 
qualities and qualities of entertainment. The silly per- 
sonal reference should be eliminated. The humor must 
be in good taste. The best literary efforts of the stu- 
dents should be sought out and published. A bit of 
clever verse is desirable. The paper can encourage stu- 
dents of an artistic bent by giving outlet for their work. 



492 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

I have already spoken of the student's aversion to 
rhetoric. The high school paper will offer golden oppor- 
tunities to the resourceful teacher. Instead of dry-as- 
dust exercises "On an October afternoon," " Why I came 
to High School," or an essay on " Truth," the student can 
get practice in writing descriptive narration of a football 
game, a chapel speech, or a school rally. And he will 
gladly miss his dinner to do it. He has the human incen- 
tive of seeing his creation in print; he is dealing with life; 
he has the desire to reproduce faithfully because his 
effort will be put to the test by his fellows. With a well- 
defined picture in mind and a burning desire to paint it, 
he feels the need of help. When assisted to find the pre- 
cise word, the well-turned sentence, the value of sugges- 
tion, negation, climax, or what-not, he makes friends of 
these processes at first hand. He learns rhetoric. And 
what is of no small importance, he enjoys it. 

Accuracy in observation, accuracy in drawing con- 
clusion, accuracy in expression should be the first 
tj and last commandments of the high school journalists. 
The gathering and the writing of the news should 
be conducted on as accurate a basis as the working 
out of a problem in geometry or an experiment in 
chemistry. 

The high school paper has boundless opportunities to 
further the best interests of the school. Its powers are 
limited only by the ability of those directing it to grasp 
the importance of their trust. It can unify the school 
by discouraging dissension among the various classes of 
students and between students and faculty; it can pro- 
mote a healthy pride by emphasizing the good in school 
life and denouncing the bad; it can promote respect for 
authority by not treating lightly matters of discipline; 



HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM 493 

it can create a better taste by avoiding petty gossip and 
personal inanities. 

The social significance of this plan is apparent to the 
thoughtful reader. Such a study of the daily newspaper 
will result in a better culture because of the wider 
information and broader outlook it gives the citizens 
of to-morrow. It will serve to vitalize the class work 
by interpreting the text-book in terms of every-day use- 
ful information. It will apply rhetoric to the practical 
problem of clear expression. It will make more dis- 
criminating readers of newspapers and consequently 
create an insistent demand for better newspapers. 

Getting the Paper Started. — In getting the paper 
started, the faculty will have a twofold problem to meet: 
first, to put the paper on a sound financial basis, and sec- 
ond, to make it efficient editorially. From the beginning 
the paper should be controlled in an advisory way by the 
faculty. The students should be allowed freedom to work 
out their own policies, but under the direction of some 
older head. A faculty supervisor, or adviser, should be 
appointed, preferably some one who combines business 
experience with newspaper training, or who possesses 
either of these qualifications. In his hands should be 
left the entire project. 

Selecting the Staff. — The first move of the faculty 
adviser will be the selection of the staff. The two lead- 
ers of the different divisions of the paper, the editorial 
and the business, should be named first. As far as pos- 
sible, the students themselves should be given a voice in 
the election of the members of the staff, but in no way 
should the success of the paper be endangered by per- 



494 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

mitting popular but weak students to take the leading 
positions. The business manager should be appointed 
by the faculty adviser. He ought to be a hard-working, 
intelligent student, who shows an aptitude for business 
affairs. The election of the editor might be left to the 
senior class with the provision that the candidates meet 
the approval of the faculty adviser. The class could 
offer from four to ten names for the post, and these could 
be thinned down by the faculty adviser to two candi- 
dates, upon whom the class could vote. 

The selection of the other members of the staff could 
be made in the same way, or be appointed by the 
teachers of the classes they represent. A working staff 
should consist of a business manager, an advertising 
manager, a circulation manager, an editor and an assis- 
tant editor, reporters for each class or roll room, the 
editors of the various departments of the paper such as 
society, sporting, exchange, debate, literary, humor, and 
alumni. 

Duties of the Staff. — The business manager should 
have charge of the entire financial end of the paper, di- 
recting the circulation and advertising managers. He 
should be responsible for the funds, and should make 
regular reports to the faculty adviser, who should audit 
his books from time to time. The advertising manager 
should solicit advertising, gather the copy, and assist the 
business manager in collecting the bills. The duties of 
the circulation manager include signing up subscrip- 
tions, keeping accounts of the circulation, and distrib- 
uting the papers. 

The editor and his assistant should decide the policies 
of the paper, plan the news for each issue, give out assign- 
ments, prepare the copy for the printer, write the 
heads, and make up the paper. The rest of the staff 



HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM 495 

will act as news gatherers, each covering some special 
school activity or some classroom. 

Preparing for Publishing. — The faculty adviser, the 
business manager, and the editor should decide definitely 
the size and general typographical characteristics of the 
paper. A convenient form would be a three or four col- 
umn quarto, twelve inches long, set in eight-point type, 
leaded. The volume of the circulation should be esti- 
mated, and with this information, approximate bids on 
the cost of the printing should be obtained from the 
publishers of the city or the town. A four-page pam- 
phlet such as that described with five hundred circula- 
tion, allowing one third for display advertising, should 
cost from eight to fifteen dollars an issue. With this 
information at hand, the subscription and advertising 
rates can be worked out to insure the financial success 
of the paper. The advertising rates should not drop 
lower than twenty-five cents an inch and the subscrip- 
tion rate not below fifty cents a year, or twenty-five cents 
a semester. 

Campaigning for Circulation. — The faculty adviser 
and the staff should make a vigorous circulation cam- 
paign, with a view of getting a subscription from each 
student, each faculty member, and as many citizens 
and alumni as possible. An assembly should be held 
to promote the plan, each member of the staff should 
be enlisted as a subscription agent, and other agents 
should be appointed until the entire field is covered. 
The campaign should be carried on briskly, not more 
than one week being given over to it. Enthusiastic work 
should bring in within that time orders from every pos- 
sible subscriber in the field. If some have trouble 
raising the cash at the time, their signatures and promises 
to pay should be taken at once and filed. 



496 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Gathering Advertising. — Under direction of the faculty 
adviser, the business manager and the advertising man- 
ager should make the rounds of the merchants present- 
ing the opportunities of the paper as an advertising me- 
dium. A rate card of prices should be made out, giving 
reductions to those who take fifty inches or more, and 
this rate card should be strictly maintained, no cutting 
in any way being countenanced. If the rate is fixed at 
twenty-five cents an inch, the contract price for fifty 
inches or more should run about twenty cents an inch. 
The price of advertising reading notices should be main- 
tained at one cent a word, with a minimum charge of 
fifteen cents. An effort should be made to induce each 
merchant to sign a contract for the number of inches he 
will take during the year. 

The Physical Appearance of the Paper. — Care should 
be taken to have the paper present a quiet, neat appear- 
ance. Bold-faced type should be avoided as far as pos- 
sible. On account of the size of the paper, small type 
such as the following should be used in the head-lines : 

For News Stories 

JUNIORS WIN HONORS IN 

FIRST ORATORY CONTEST 

Eighteen to twenty letters to a line (count I as half 
space; M and W as one and a half spaces). 

Seniors to Entertain Faculty 

Three or four short words 

For Feature Departments 



WITH THE ALUMNI 



HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM 497 



III. WRITING FOR LOCAL PAPER 

Teachers rinding it inadvisable to start a school 
paper might enlist the support of the local editor in pre- 
paring assignments of town or city feature stories for 
the students, or the better students might be given news 
assignments. The teacher, of course, would " read 
copy," and thus train the student in English composi- 
tion. Writing about live subjects, the student has an 
incentive to do his best. This is necessary in creative 
work of any kind. 

IV. CONCLUSION 

Too often the newspaper editor is forced to the de- 
fence: "I must give my readers what they want. I'm 
sorry the public likes this kind of newspaper, but an 
economic law compels me to furnish it the commodity 
it will pay for." Better newspaper readers will make 
for better newspapers. If a million high school pupils 
were taught to read their papers with discrimination, 
were taught to distinguish the significant from the 
trivial, to place a ready finger on opinion in the news, 
to regard with disgust those attempts to play upon the 
baser emotions, the American press would quickly re- 
spond. 

And herein lies the social value of a study of the 
newspaper in the schools. 






CHAPTER XX 

HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES AND THE SOCIAL 
LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

John Calvin Hanna, A.M. 

STATE SUPERVISOR OF HIGH SCHOOLS OF ILLINOIS, FORMERLY PRINCIPAL 

OF THE OAK PARK AND RIVER FOREST TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL, 

OAK PARK, ILL. 

The Change in the High School. — At first sight the 
character of the high school in America would seem tc 
have changed radically, thoroughly, and in almost every 
particular within the last thirty or forty years. The 
remarkable development in the architecture and material 
equipment of high school buildings; the extension and 
strengthening of the courses offered; the increased prev- 
alence of the elective system; the growth of many sorts 
of unofficial and semiofficial activities such as athletics, 
periodicals, clubs — all these and many more give so 
striking an impression of change and contrast that a 
sincere student of secondary education is likely to come 
to the conclusion that the high school is not only im- 
mensely developed but that it is totally changed in 
character. 

Signs of the Change. — When we hear references to 
action by the "high school faculty"; when we see a news- 
paper item about such and such a person as "dean of 
girls" in the Grand Trunk High School; when we know 
of a Shakespearean comedy or a Gilbert and Sullivan 

498 



HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES 499 

opera staged by the class of 191 2; when we see head- 
lines discussing the action of the board of control of the 
high school athletic league or see an account of a field 
meet rivalling in descriptive language and apparent im- 
portance the great intercollegiate gatherings ; or when we 
know of a five-thousand mile trip taken by a high school 
football squad to settle a championship — when these 
things are brought to our attention, we look back upon 
the modest little high school of the seventies, where we 
sat two by two, in a room up-stairs above the " primary 
kids," and studied and recited lessons in algebra and 
"analysis" (perhaps of "Lady of the Lake"), in Latin 
possibly, and a little English history; and where it was 
considered progressive, indeed, if we had a course in 
Steele's "Fourteen Weeks in Astronomy (or Chemis- 
try)"; where there was no thought of class organiza- 
tion or rivalry; where no one dreamed of instruction in 
orchestral music, stenography, trigonometry, domestic 
economy, foundry, pottery, pure-food testing, swim- 
ming, basket-ball, and the critical study of Burke's 
Speech on Conciliation; nay, where even a baseball 
game was a thing wholly outside of and unrelated to 
school and where a victory of the "Eastsiders" over the 
"Bughunters" was wholly a back-lot performance and 
never even heard of by the instructors — we are likely 
to say to ourselves: "Truly this is the people's college 
in more senses than one." The activities and dignities 
of the modern metropolitan high school are vastly more 
complex and more dignified and receive more official rec- 
ognition than those of Siwash College and its ilk, as those 
institutions flourished in the eighties. 

The Change only Superficial. — And yet in the funda- 
mentals and in the real aims of secondary education 



500 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

there has been no change. An extension and an expan- 
sion, no doubt, but the essence is the same. The child 
becoming adolescent is separated from the little ones 
who are younger and is put in a school by himself, to be 
watched and guarded and trained and developed through 
the difficult and trying years of adolescence and early 
youth to the door of manhood and womanhood. The 
problem is the same ; the material is the same ; the funda- 
mentals in method must ever be the same. 

Among the waving banners and sounding bombs that 
at first seem to indicate a revolution in the character of 
the high school none is more conspicuous than the high 
school fraternity. The attitudes and ambitions and ri- 
valries of the Alfalfa Delts and Eta Beta Pis of George 
Fitch's creation are farther from those of the present-day 
college fraternity than they are from the eruptive excres- 
cences of the average high school fraternity as mani- 
fested in the first decade of the present century. 

People's college! College ideals, college ways, college 
" student activities," college yells, college athletics, col- 
lege banners, college parades, " proms" and picnics, col- 
lege functions, festivities, and sports — all these seem to 
come forth in a form hardly modified in the "big" high 
school of the last decade. And the very natural conclu- 
sion is that since these things have grown up there must 
have been a real demand for them and a real need to be 
satisfied. The logical outcome is that if these are natu- 
ral growths and really needed they should be encouraged, 
regulated, and utilized rather than frowned upon and 
suppressed and done away with; that, for example, if col- 
lege fraternities are useful and worthy institutions, cer- 
tainly high school fraternities must be so; in short, that 
the latter have grown up to supply a real need. 



HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES 501 

The fact that a growth has occurred of itself does not 
indicate that it is a healthy or useful growth. It may 
be an excrescence; it may be a diseased growth; it may 
be a noxious weed. 

Example of a Healthy Growth. — Athletics are a ne- 
cessity in education because man's nature is physical as 
well as intellectual and moral. The relation between 
each of these three and either of the others, moreover, is 
now considered a direct relation, and if the education of 
the child, adolescent, and youth is to take care of his 
whole nature, the physical training must be systema- 
tized and controlled as definitely as must the intellectual 
training. And, in addition, the justification of athletics in 
school life, as distinguished from calisthenics is, a recog- 
nition of the instinctive cry of the youthful soul that 
itself shall see its training directed to a result which itself 
can comprehend. Therefore, the seemingly remote aim 
of bettering the average of the human race physically, or 
the strengthening of the next generation so as to prepare 
for the " yellow peril," or even the health and happiness 
of the individual in middle life and old age — these do 
not present to the adolescent mind a sufficient raison 
d'etre for the work of the gymnasium. The game in- 
stinct is strong and it can be and should be utilized to 
justify to the mind of the youth his physical training. 

The foregoing is an interesting and convincing ex- 
ample of one of the newer school activities that does re- 
ceive and should receive welcome and recognition as a 
satisfactory, reasonable, and natural demand and that 
is not by any means a mere aping of college activities. 

The Imitative Instinct. — The imitative instinct, to be 
sure, is still strong in the " teens" but by no means as 
dominant as in the years below the adolescent period. 



502 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

The solving of a problem for itself is the mightiest im- 
pulse in the budding soul that comes to our hands from 
" the grades." 

Those activities and manners and motions that are 
merely imitative in character and origin and that have 
manifested themselves just before this period are likely 
to slough off in the presence of the new and commanding 
spirit for independent solution of problems that is born 
with adolescence. For this reason playing with dolls 
and wooden swords is cast aside and the fourteen-year- 
old, even if his stature is small, is passionately anxious to 
show that the imitative instinct no longer controls him, 
or, as he would put it, that he is no longer "a kid." 

I have given an example of the newer activities, name- 
ly, athletics, conspicuous in the modern high school when 
contrasted with the old-time high school, which is founded 
upon and grows out of a real, vital demand and which for 
that reason cannot be and should not be ignored or sup- 
pressed, but rather encouraged and handled as a scientific 
problem and a proper field of pedagogic activity. 

Other Legitimate Activities. — Many of those named 
above as challenging, by way of contrast, the attention 
of one familiar with the old-time high school are of this 
sort — are legitimate, important, worthy, and deserving 
of the best thought and encouragement and study that 
we can give them, and are not merely excrescences, imi- 
tative phases, temporary fads destined to pass away. 
Among those that are thus important and that are be- 
coming essential parts of high school education are ath- 
letics, class organization, clubs with legitimate aims and 
functions and democratic spirit, school publications, 
dramatics. 

Errors in Imitation. — Others of them are imitative 
only and have no part in secondary education. Such is 






HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES 503 

the idea of a high school teaching corps as a faculty. 
This is purely an imitation of the college idea or rather 
a misnomer in imitation of the college term. I doubt 
whether the administrative and disciplinary relation be- 
tween the teaching corps of any modern public American 
high school and the individual student is in any impor- 
tant degree analogous to that between the ordinary col- 
lege " faculty" and its students. This error almost de- 
generates to the insignificance of the ludicrous blunder 
whereby a sermon addressed to the graduates of a high 
school is pompously though innocently referred to as a 
"baccalaureate sermon." Such terms as "matricula- 
tion," "degree," and the like would be inappropriate 
and, of course, merely imitative if used with reference 
to a high school. 

Causes for Development of the High School Frater- 
nity. — Others, such as the high school fraternities, are 
imitative in their titles, insignia, and superficial behavior, 
and yet, perhaps, are the product of other causes operat- 
ing conjointly with the imitativeness which has been de- 
veloped by the increase of colleges and universities and 
the proximity of many of the later ones to cities where 
large high schools have grown up, as well as to the fre- 
quency of "meets" and "conferences" and other occa- 
sions which bring high school students into familiar con- 
tact more or less frequently with the outer life of the 
colleges. 

In order to understand more clearly the problem of the 
high school fraternities, let us see if we can trace some 
of these other causes which operated, along with the re- 
maining imitativeness left over from childhood to ado- 
lescence, to bring them into being. 

The Gang Spirit and Its Corrective. — The gang spirit 
belongs to an age rather earlier, say from ten to fourteen, 



504 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

and lasting over, under some conditions, into the real 
adolescent period. It is as natural as is any manifesta- 
tion of later childhood. It is developed in every school- 
house yard, every alley, every back lot, about every 
swimming hole, and has been so developed from time 
immemorial. "Tom Sawyer and his gang " — it is merely 
a type, and truthful because a type. It appears among 
girls, though usually the groupings are less aggressive 
and less coherent. When Hatty twined her arms about 
Emmy Lou and said "Le's us be nintimate friends," there 
was presented the germ of the gang spirit. This is a nat- 
ural and therefore, in its beginnings, a healthy tendency. 
It must be recognized and welcomed. These groupings 
are as natural and as inevitable for later childhood as are 
grimy fists and falsetto screamings for the same period. 
And no one of these is a curse, nor should it break the 
mother's heart. 

Each has its corrective. The corrective for falsetto 
screamings is in change of voice and the ridicule of older 
boys. The corrective for fists is the beginning of calf- 
love. The corrective for too intense a manifestation of 
the gang spirit is twofold. First, it is in the fickleness of 
childhood. The groupings and the cleavages change, if 
left alone, from year to year and sometimes from month 
to month. Those intense loyalties and affections which 
persist, such as are touched upon in Briggs's immortal 
cartoons on "The Days of Real Sport," when Fatty (if 
that is his name) everlastingly calls for Skinnay to 
u C'm' on over," and is unhappy even while playing 
hooky if Skinnay fails to join the truants — those in- 
teresting and persistent attachments are not manifest 
among the members, generally, of u de gang" but be- 
tween two only. They are among the most interesting 






HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES 505 

phenomena of childhood and youth and deserve special 
study and a monograph of their own. 

But the gang spirit is a tendency that is dangerous. It 
should not, for that reason, be repressed but should be 
given direction through the big-brother method, and 
should be left to form integers and these to disintegrate 
from period to period as they will if left alone. 

The Hankering for Organization. — The new element 
that enters into the period of high school life and that 
is likely to unite with the remnants of the gang spirit 
and to crystallize it into something harmful is the han- 
kering for organization that begins to manifest itself at 
the very beginning of the adolescent period. This long- 
ing comes to the surface often at thirteen or fourteen, 
especially if exposed to the influence of sixteen-year-olds, 
and begins to take a violent form in a short time unless 
harnessed and utilized for legitimate purposes. When 
combined with the imitative tendency and the general 
craze for insignia and self-decoration, especially of a 
symbolic sort, and when given a semblance of real life 
by an infusion of the elixir of mystery, then this hanker- 
ing for organization results in the high school fraternity. 

Easy to Study the Development. — This has been the 
history of this growth which, starting without at first 
attracting much attention and almost unconsciously to 
itself, succeeded within a few years in growing to large 
proportions and in accomplishing evil out of all apparent 
proportion to the causes which brought it forth. The 
whole period of this growth is thus seen to be within our 
immediate view, and it is, therefore, possible to make a 
thorough study of it with greater ease and accuracy. 

A careful, discriminating study of the situation will 
show that the circumstances which brought this into 



506 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

being, near the close ot the nineteenth century, and de- 
termined its character and its power for good or evil, 
will show a vital difference between the environment un- 
der which this phenomenon appeared and that which 
brought into being the college fraternity, of which it is 
usually looked upon as a direct imitation and with which 
it is frequently confused, especially in what may be 
called "the legislative mind." 

The Need that Called Forth the College Fraternity — 
Attention has been called by several writers, and particu- 
larly by Doctor Frances W. Shepardson, to the fact that 
the period within which the college-fraternity system 
came into being — namely, from 1820 to 1830 — was con- 
spicuous for the development of individualism in Ameri- 
can society. When Robert Burns sang in the lines now 
so familiar to us in sound and in sense — 

" The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
The man's the gowd for a' that," — 

he spoke not only a protest against the tyranny of aris- 
tocracy, but he pointed the way to individualism, and 
this became the vital spot in American education. No- 
body knew that it was the vital spot. The slow, con- 
servative college authorities still clung to the fixed cur- 
riculum. Electives and all that goes with them came 
long after — but they came. The germ of freedom for the 
individual soul, its right to make the most of itself in its 
own way, these were manifest among the college students 
all their life long before college faculties waked up to the 
new birth. This was a social movement, a phase in the 
development of social character. Blind though it was, 
unrecognized by even the wisest of wise men in the col- 






HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES 507 

lege chairs, it came into being— the college-fraternity 
system — to supply that imperative need of college 
students which the colleges and universities have even 
to the present time absolutely failed in themselves to 
supply. 

And curiously enough that imperative need was cre- 
ated by the college system of education itself. College 
life is artificial and not natural. Family life is based 
upon sex and the helplessness of childhood; therefore it 
is natural and will persist as long as human nature. The 
school is a special institution developed and maintained 
by the community (which is merely an association of 
neighboring families) for the purpose of performing, in 
part at least, more conveniently, economically, and ef- 
fectively certain portions of the function of the family 
in the training of helpless childhood to efficient manhood 
and womanhood. The State, in a democracy, steps in 
to control the activities of this institution — which is 
merely an extension of the family — so as to provide 
citizens capable of self-government and for the perpetu- 
ation of the State. The public school, therefore, is a 
natural institution and merely an extension of the family, 
controlled for self-protection by the State. 

College Life Artificial. — But the college is artificial. 
It continues the instruction of youth and professedly fits 
them for the responsibilities of independent manhood and 
womanhood, but in order to do this under our modern 
system it calls them away from home and from the fam- 
ily ties and influences that heretofore have supplied the 
social education, and, although it provides the intellectual 
education and latterly is giving a little attention, in 
sporadic fashion, to moral and physical education, it has 
wholly neglected social education. The youth in college. 



508 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

therefore, so far as anything which the college does, is 
worse off in this particular than the youth who does not 
go to college. The latter is thrown head first into the 
world in which he is to live and learns by contact with 
the countless social institutions of that world how to 
adapt himself socially to his environment. 

But the college youth is taken from family and family 
environment, isolated from the world for four years, con- 
fined with hundreds of others in the same plight and left 
to work out his own social problem without guidance or 
supervision, except to be disciplined if he offends certain 
conventions more or less reasonable. These are the con- 
ditions of college life and have been from the beginning. 

Under these conditions and because of these facts and 
to supply this need, otherwise wholly unprovided for 
before or since, the college fraternity system grew up 
and has developed and strengthened until now it is prev- 
alent in 180 colleges, maintains 1,500 chapters with over 
30,000 undergraduate members, and owns property worth 
$5,000,000. Moreover, it has exerted a lifelong in- 
fluence, mainly for good, upon the character of hundreds 
of thousands of young men and women, many of whom 
have grown old and in lives of usefulness have stamped 
upon the history of their country the character-making 
influence gained largely through their membership in 
college fraternities. 

College Fraternities and Individualism. — It was very 
natural, coming as it did in that period of the twenties or 
thirties, when individualism began so strongly to assert 
itself in America, that the new social system springing 
up in the college world should largely set before itself as 
its aim the betterment and advantage of the individual. 
The help given to the individual brother through mem- 



HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES 509 

bership in the fraternity was the key-note in all these 
inchoate organizations. Every one of them has that in 
its constitution, its ritual, its declaration of principles. 
The fellowship of artificial brotherhood came in to sup- 
ply to the lonely freshman, away from home and family 
ties, that which he had lost by going into and becoming a 
part of this artificial and one-sided community. And 
the college fraternity thus justifies itself. In spite of all 
mistakes and extravagances and just criticisms, it still 
has been and is worth while, and should not be abolished 
and done away with because here and there it has had 
a drinker or two, or here and there a group of snobs. 
Drunkards and snobs existed before college fraternities 
were dreamed of. 

An Earnest Suggestion. — The writer craves the indul- 
gence of his readers at this point to call their attention, 
whether they, like himself, are believers in the value of 
the college fraternity system or not, to a matter which 
he believes of vital importance to the college fraternities 
themselves and of even greater importance to the inter- 
ests of higher education generally, as well as to the na- 
tional problem of self-government, which is destined 
always to be a live question in America. Furthermore, 
he believes that what he has to say is important in its 
relation to the high school fraternity question. 

Individualism Giving Way to Altruism. — Here is the 
matter. The view-point of the thinking mind has 
changed since 1830. Since that day altruism has taken 
hold upon the minds and hearts of men. "No man 
liveth to himself alone" — the weight of this truth is 
borne in upon us in the twentieth century as never before. 
u Apr is nous le deluge" can no longer be the comforting 
utterance of the aristocrat. Cain's scream to his in- 



510 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

quiring Creator, "Am I my brother's keeper?" has been 
answered in the affirmative, and the answer has sunk 
into the hearts of men in this land of enlightenment and 
is shaping their thoughts, their words, and their deeds. 

Whatever individual and whatever institution in this 
new century undertakes to meet the social problem of the 
time must cast aside the creed and code of the first mur- 
derer and must remember that spirit which is embodied 
in the words: "Bear ye one another's burdens." For 
years the leaders among alumni workers of the college 
fraternities, supported and inspired by the character, 
utterances, and achievements of the great and good men 
who have grown out of their wide-spread chapter rolls 
from the fine ideals that were in their college life to the 
finer and higher ideals of service to which the call of the 
future summons them and which in an increasing degree 
is responded to even by the college boys — these leaders 
and officials have set up a new standard round which the 
college fraternity men and women shall rally, on which 
is emblazoned: "Loyalty and service to the college and 
its ideals; loyalty and service to the fraternity and its 
aims; loyalty and service to all the students whether in 
or out of fraternities ; and loyalty and service to our coun- 
try in whose service college men should be leaders." If, 
and in so far as, the college fraternities rise to this stand- 
ard, they will abide and will fulfil their mission and 
will be approved and utilized by authorities everywhere. 
Otherwise they will pass away. 

Why Not Applicable to High School Fraternities. — ■ 
Now, these are high aims and good to dwell upon. Why 
do they not apply also to high school fraternities? Why 
should there be a distinction? The answer is not far to 
seek. It is in the environment. First, the college fra- 



HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES 511 

ternity supplies a real need — the need of the youth away 
from home and family for something which shall take 
care of his social nature and supply in brotherhood that 
which he had at home in his family and which he has lost 
by leaving home and going to dwell for four years in the 
artificial atmosphere of college life. 

The high school fraternity does not supply such a 
need, for the good and sufficient reason that no such 
need exists. There is no absence from home. There is no 
separation from family and all its ties and restraints and 
protections. There is no lonely student, far away from 
mother and fireside, thrown too young upon his own re- 
sources and craving and needing artificial brotherhood 
to supply that which he has lost. No ! The high school 
youth is at home, under the eye of his father and the 
touch of his mother, with the sympathetic companion- 
ship of brother and sister and schoolmates, with whom he 
has grown up and between whom and himself are de- 
veloped a thousand social ties and influences supplying 
every real need of his social nature and protecting him 
from every folly, every trouble, every embarrassment. 

The forming of a brotherhood under such circum- 
stances is a rank superfluity. The development of an 
elaborate and select organization, setting apart its mem- 
bers as hereafter officially and permanently chums — 
"No others need apply" — is absurd, useless, painful in 
its immediate consequences, and most serious in its effect 
upon the member himself, whose formation and shifting 
of close friendships in a natural way from month to 
month and from year to year are thus interfered with on 
artificial lines and with no good purpose to serve. 

A Machine without a Work to Do. — All of the super- 
ficial faults that at any time appear in college fraterni- 



512 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ties appear in even greater degree in the high school fra- 
ternities: extravagance, false sense of proportion in the 
estimate of the relative importance of things, exclusive- 
ness, snobbishness, envy, heart-breakings, and the gen- 
eral artificial unfolding of the human bud before its time. 
Every complex machine without a real work to do, and 
if not hooked up to something worth while ; is bound to 
run amuck and cause wreckage. 

The college fraternities have found lately that their 
interest lies in the direction of opposing, rather than fa- 
voring, these useless imitations, and the weight of their 
influence from this time on is likely to be cast against 
them. 

Testimony of School Authorities. — It is the universal 
testimony of high school principals and teachers that 
where fraternities and sororities have come into the life 
of the high school, they have served no good purpose 
that could not be better served without them; that they 
have added nothing to the possibilities even of social 
pleasure for the young people themselves ; that they have 
invariably caused much pain and bitterness in the stu- 
dent body; that they have in many cases assisted in 
developing direct evils of the personal sort; and that they 
have invariably created and fostered a wrong spirit to- 
ward the school and its administration and best ideals; 
furthermore, that when they are once finally removed 
from any school, a great change for the better has re- 
sulted in the atmosphere of the school and, moreover, that 
all the social advantages are secured for the individuals 
themselves as readily and even more so than when the 
fraternities were dominant. 

Hostile legislation has been enacted against them in 
thirteen States and in many cities in other States. In- 
variably the attitude of the courts has been to uphold 



HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES 513 

the authority of boards of education in suppressing them, 
even when not supported by the enactment of special 
statutes. 

How to Eliminate Them. — The best method of elim- 
inating them is a serious and difficult question, the answer 
to which may vary in different localities. The main fea- 
ture is the education of local public sentiment, and, of 
course, where they have been long established this is 
often a slow and difficult process. Parents are pro- 
verbially blind to faults in their own children, and in these 
days the child and his opinions too often rule the house- 
hold. Sane discussion, calm and convincing statements 
are more likely to be effective in creating intelligent pub- 
lic opinion than are severe methods of restraint. When 
public opinion is developed, then strict rules may be 
adopted and enforced. 

In the opinion of the writer much depends upon the 
general relation between the teachers and principal on 
the one hand and the pupils of the school on the other — • 
the "spirit of the school." It is possible, with great 
patience, to maintain to a large extent relations of re- 
spect and friendliness between the teacher and the pupil 
even when the belief of the teacher that the fraternities 
are evil is known to the pupil. And sometimes this, if 
wisely used, may lead to a genuine conversion of the pupil 
himself. 

More than once effective service has thus been done 
through pupils themselves who have been led to recog- 
nize higher aims and ideals and to be willing to sacrifice, 
for the sake of others and for the school, something of 
their own petty, selfish interest, and so to become real 
missionaries in creating among their fellows a healthy 
sentiment in favor of an attitude of loyalty to the school 
and its authorities. 



514 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Substitutes — Other Activities. — "Satan finds some 
mischief still for idle hands to do." It behooves the wise 
school administrator to develop in his school many forms 
of activity that not only will occupy the studious but 
those less so, that not only will give a field of achievement 
to the individual but will encourage and direct the for- 
mation of natural and legitimate groups whose member- 
ship shall be based on special interest and activity in any 
given direction rather than upon the personal preference 
of those already members, and whose aim shall be the 
maintenance of some legitimate activity naturally con- 
nected with the school. 

Co-operation of Parent and Teacher. — Avowedly so- 
cial gatherings for purposes of amusement, entertain- 
ment, and social training, handled under the direction 
of teachers or specialists trained for that purpose, are 
attempted with success in some places and are likely, 
when wisely handled and watchfully guarded, to supply 
the recreation which otherwise would naturally be sought 
in fraternity parties and "hops." The question as to 
how far the solving of this problem of social activity and 
development should be done by the family or by the 
community, through the agency of the public school, is 
not as yet a settled question ; the final answer must come 
after further study and experimentation. 

The main feature in every effort to meet this most 
difficult of social problems in the high school is the intelli- 
gent, harmonious, and sympathetic co-operation of par- 
ents and teachers. 

Need for Legislation. — It ought to be the aim, more- 
over, of all loyal and intelligent citizens who are inter- 
ested in educational improvement to secure in ever 
State the enactment of statutes forbidding in all public 



HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES 515 

high schools membership in such organizations ; and such 
statutes ought to be enacted discriminating, on the one 
hand, between college fraternities, which have done some 
harm and much good, which have a genuine mission of 
helpfulness, and which supply a real need that can hardly 
be supplied in any other way, and, on the other hand, high 
school fraternities, which have done practically no good 
and much evil, and which have no real mission or aim to 
fulfil. This distinction, based on so manifest a differ- 
ence, is, nevertheless, hard to establish in the minds of 
some legislators whose experience has given them no 
first-hand knowledge of these two wholly different sorts 
of organizations, who are misled by the similarity in the 
sounds of their names and by other wholly superficial 
indications, and who are sometimes influenced by the 
ex-parte arguments of selfishly interested persons posing 
as champions of democracy. 

The Legal Status. — The legal status of this question 
has been well summed up in published articles named in 
the bibliography. The courts have unanimously upheld 
the boards of education in all cases that have been 
brought before them. Two decisions have been handed 
down by State supreme courts — namely, those of Wash- 
ington in the Seattle case and of Illinois in the Chicago 
case. The decisions as to the authority of boards of 
education to punish by expulsion violations of the rules 
prohibiting membership have been made only by trial 
courts, but supreme-court decisions in other cases in- 
volving the same principle would seem to make it sure 
that this final authority would be supported by the 
courts of last resort if any such question should finally 
reach them. 

The summing up of the legal phase of the matter is so 



516 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

comprehensively presented in an article by S. J. Wetter- 
ick in the December, 1910, number of The World of 
To-Day that it is quoted here in full: 

The principles of law deducible [from the court decisions 
quoted] are these: 

First, school authorities have authority to make all reasonable 
and necessary rules for the government of the school; 

Second, it is the duty of pupils attending a school to obey its 
rules; 

Third, the right to attend a public school is not absolute but 
conditional; 

Fourth, the right to attend may be denied for a violation of 
rules prohibiting acts that are detrimental to the interests of the 
school. 

If it is admitted, then that high school fraternities are detri- 
mental to the interests of a school, we are forced to the con- 
clusion that they may be prohibited, and that pupils who par- 
ticipate in them to the injury of the other pupils and the school 
may be suspended or expelled and may be denied any or all of 
the privileges of a public school. 



PART IV 

ADDITIONAL SOCIALIZING FUNCTIONS 
OF THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

CHAPTER XXI 

THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 

Clarence Arthur Perry, B.S. 

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF RECREATION, RUSSELL SAGE 
FOUNDATION 

A Study in Educational Evolution. — The subject be- 
fore us is one of educational evolution. The high school 
is in the process of expanding its social function; it is 
developing a new and more immediate relationship with 
its constituency. The present stage of this development, 
the impulses within the system, and the conditions in its 
environment which are producing the new power and 
its future relation to the school's prime function — these 
are the general aspects of the theme to be considered in 
the present chapter. 

Extension of Public Education General. — In the be- 
ginning the State universities instructed only the stu- 
dents in residence on the campus; to-day their extension 
departments 1 are reaching out to the utmost confines of 

1 See "A University that Runs a State," by Frank Parker Stockbridge, 
in World's Work for April, 19 13. 

517 



518 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the commonwealth and are endeavoring to benefit adults 
as well as adolescents. Through its kindergarten the 
primary school has recently taken in a younger set and 
through its evening classes it is bringing in the grown- 
ups, while the secondary school has not only got hold of 
the men and women but it, too, is making overtures to 
a group lower down in the age scale than the one it has 
traditionally served. 

These three institutions are not only extending their 
benefits to new classes of persons but they are also ren- 
dering new kinds of service. The university extension 
divisions are sending out material for debating clubs and 
social surveys as well as the lecturers and demonstrators 
with which they began. To the elementary-school build- 
ing the outside public is increasingly resorting for its 
games, its athletics, its entertainment, and its social life; 
at the high school it is finding not only these same en- 
joyments but the illustrated lectures, theatrical repre- 
sentations, and art exhibitions which its more spacious 
quarters make possible. In these novel and more direct 
relations with society the secondary school is simply fol- 
lowing the trend of a general educational movement. 

Present Stage of the New Development. — In the case 
of the university the evolution has reached a more ad- 
vanced stage than it has in the lower institutions. Its 
extension work is deliberately planned and supported 
from within. But in the public-school systems the 
newer enterprises are only beginning to emerge from the 
category of " outside activities." The authorities still 
permit them more often than they promote them. 
Evening classes and public lectures, it is true, have a 
recognized status in school systems, but the position of 
club work, quiet games, and social dancing is not so 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 519 

fixed. High school principals have a well-defined policy 
regarding the social and recreational activities of their 
own students, but their attitude toward public forums, 
citizens' organizations, and outside basket-ball teams is 
still in the process of formation. In most instances where 
public schools are now used for popular recreational and 
civic activities these are administered either by a volun- 
tary organization 1 or by a separate staff directly under 
the city superintendent, and, excepting the greater es- 
teem shown for the superior accommodations in the av- 
erage high school building, little discrimination is made 
between it and the elementary school in the selection of 
edifices for the " wider use." 

High School Centre Not Yet Differentiated.— That the 
high school's function as a social centre is not yet con- 
sciously distinguished from that of the elementary school 
is due to the fact that the heads of these schools have 
not generally been made responsible for the various ac- 
tivities which constitute the new relationship. Whether 
the local playground association maintains its club work 
for young people in a large building or a small one, its 
characteristics will not be perceptibly affected, but a 
high school staff could not manage such an undertaking 
long before it would display different features from those 
of a similar one in the hands of an elementary-school 
organization. When the extension activities begin to 
emanate from the two institutions themselves their re- 
spective spheres in this respect will become more clearly 
defined. And if the transfer of the initiative to the 

1 In Boston where several high school buildings are used as " Evening 
Centres" the first one (1911-12) was supported by the Women's Munic- 
ipal League. During the season of 191 2-13 four such centres were main- 
tained by the school committee, their administration devolving upon 
the "assistant director of evening and continuation schools." 



520 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

principals can be made without losing the enthusiasm 
possessed by the voluntary organizations or the particu- 
lar abilities developed by the special board of education 
staffs the social-centre function will have a better oppor- 
tunity to show vigorous growth and individuality than 
the present arrangement permits, because it will then be 
freed of the friction which must always exist when two 
bodies with differing aims attempt to work in the same 
quarters. 

Basis of Future Growth. — Differentiation, however, 
only marks growth; it does not produce it. What 
grounds are there for believing that differentiation will 
take place? Why may we expect to see the new social 
function of the high school become definitely a part of 
the responsibilities of the principal, to be consciously 
developed and expanded by him, to be correlated with 
the work of his faculty and his students, and, finally, to 
be so thoroughly integrated in the life of the municipality 
as to give his institution a power and influence now 
hardly conceivable? A prediction of so sweeping a char- 
acter can find a rational basis only in the existence of 
permanent forces or tendencies which, working together, 
will produce such a result. How soon it may be realized 
no one can confidently say ; that the outcome will be pre- 
cisely as prophesied no one can guarantee; but that the 
course of evolution is already in that direction is a fact 
which needs no demonstration. 

The Dominant Forces. — The fundamental motive fac- 
tors in this development are those which are bringing 
and will increasingly continue to bring the outside public 
into the high school building to enjoy its facilities or its 
offerings. These are of two kinds: the disposition of the 
high school organization to set up attractions which tend 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 521 

to pull the public in and the social conditions on the out- 
side which tend to drive it in. 

Principal's New Attitude toward Community. — The 
first of these is due to changes in the principal's conscious- 
ness of his relation to his community. The tendency of 
high school administration is to place more and more 
initiative in his hands. The affairs under his control 
have become, in many instances, so vast and so complex 
that it is a practical impossibility for the city superin- 
tendent to give them intelligent detailed supervision. 
More and more it is the principal, rather than the au- 
thorities over him, who selects the instructors, lays out 
new courses, plans extensions to his building, and who, 
in the final analysis, determines the amount of the ap- 
propriation to be asked for to maintain his school. 

It is his increasing control over the school budget that 
is causing the principal to think more and more about 
the taxpayer. Once he would have repelled the sug- 
gestion to issue a printed report upon the work of the 
school as in the nature of tooting his own horn. In those 
days the board which passed upon his work included 
some of the best minds in the community. Their occa- 
sional inspections enabled them to decide whether or not 
he did it well, and their favorable opinion was all he 
needed to strive for. With the advent of trustees, who 
judged the success of their schools largely by the public's 
reaction to them, he was obliged to take a different atti- 
tude, and it became necessary to see that the public was 
adequately informed about them. Gradually there de- 
veloped the policy which is now generally followed and 
which involves systematically laying before the high 
school's constituents, through attractive reports and the 
columns of the press, such evidences of successful en- 



522 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

deavor as may be found in student productions, college- 
entrance examinations, athletics, debating contests, and 
the careers of graduates. 

Encouraging Direct Enjoyment by All. — But such ac- 
counting of stewardship touches mainly the alumni, the 
parents of the students, and the leading citizens — a com- 
paratively small part of the community. In these demo- 
cratic days the expenditure of public funds must be jus- 
tified to all the people. And so the modern principal, 
with his increased financial control and a correspondingly 
increased sense of responsibility, is being compelled to go 
even further in his efforts to create a favorable public 
sentiment toward his undertakings. He is discovering 
that the most effective way to convince the man in the 
street of his wisdom in erecting a magnificent auditorium 
is to bring him in to enjoy it. If he needs new equip- 
ment for the gymnasium he brings the taxpayers into such 
contact with the situation that they, too, experience the 
need for the new apparatus. Student exhibitions and 
entertainments have, indeed, long been provided, but, 
although open to the public, they have reached mainly 
the pupils' parents and friends. Now, in a growing num- 
ber of places, principals are encouraging a more general 
use of their auditoriums by arranging for popular con- 
certs and lecture courses, and facilitating their utiliza- 
tion as rehearsal halls for choral societies and the place 
of mass-meetings for the presentation and discussion of 
current civic problems. They are beginning to give their 
gymnasiums for the evening physical training of outside 
young people and their classrooms for the club activities 
of public-spirited men and women — in short, there is an 
increasing tendency to make all the facilities of their 
costly plants directly beneficial to the individuals out- 
side of school as well as those within. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 523 

Most Noticeable in Rural High School. — The cor- 
relation of this tendency with the principal's sensitive- 
ness to the financial implications of his undertakings is 
well illustrated in the case of the new type of rural high 
school. Coming to life in regions little accustomed to 
such luxuries, confronted by traditions opposed to liberal 
expenditure for public service of any sort, and in the face 
of a general scepticism as to the value of higher educa- 
tion, its administrators have naturally felt an urgent 
necessity to "make good" with its supporters, not years 
hence when its graduates could show their mettle, but 
immediately. Accordingly, we find the modern country 
high school not only opening its doors for all sorts of 
neighborhood meetings, entertainments, illustrated talks, 
exhibitions, and educational institutes, but also sending 
out its instructors to advise with farmers, judge stock, or 
plan crop rotations; putting its students to work testing 
neighborhood cows or selecting fertile seed for patrons, 
and in various other ways directly serving its constit- 
uency. 1 Here where the sense of responsibility to the 
community is keenest the secondary school has gone 
furthest in its conscious development as a social centre. 

Force of Social Conditions. — The other force which is 
more and more bringing the public into the high school 
has come into play through a radical change in method 
on the part of many reformatory and uplift agencies. 
Besides attempting through moral suasion to strengthen 
the human will against evil choices, they are now trying 
to improve its action by surrounding it with more means 
for wholesome expression. Vicious conduct, they say, 
is resulting from bad environments, hence they are en- 
deavoring to substitute good environments. Investiga- 

1 For instance, see the Eleventh Biennial Report of the Superinten- 
dent of Public Instruction for Idaho. 



524 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tors find that the inmates of the brothel are often re- 
cruited in the indecorous dance-hall, and there ensues 
an agitation for social dancing in public-school buildings 
under proper auspices. The corrupting effects upon 
young men of the saloon, pool-room, and other gambling 
resorts is responsible for a movement to afford organ- 
ized games, athletic sports, and allied forms of recreation 
in school gymnasiums and basements, and the same op- 
portunities are demanded in the interests of national 
health and vigor because of the lack of physical exercise 
on the part of office workers and others leading seden- 
tary city lives — a need which is only partly met by the 
Y. M. C. A. and similar institutions. The extraordinary 
growth of the motion-picture theatres, with their some- 
times questionable entertainments and unsanitary and 
immoral environment, has produced another problem the 
solution of which is sought in the use of school auditori- 
ums for like purposes. The city's demand for wholesome 
opportunities for recreation and social life is based prin- 
cipally upon the need of substitution; in the country it 
is the scarcity of such opportunities that is responsible 
for the movement which is demanding a more extended 
use of school property. 

In the political world the continually repeated spec- 
tacle of corrupt boss control is causing wide-spread ap- 
preciation of the need of meeting-places which will invite 
a loftier and more general discussion of platforms and 
a dignified transaction of electoral affairs. When pri- 
maries and political rallies are held over saloons or in 
halls of equal unsavoriness it is difficult to secure the 
attendance of the more respectable citizens. The result 
•is that the more unselfish elements of the community 
are not represented in the deliberations and choices which 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 525 

determine the efficiency of governmental machinery, and 
the men who make politics their business are able to have 
things all their own way. The necessity for renting halls 
also adds to the excuse for raising campaign funds, with 
the inevitable feeling of indebtedness on the part of the 
successful candidates to the individuals or special inter- 
ests which contributed to their financial support. The 
experience already had in the use of school buildings for 
political meetings and balloting purposes tends to sub- 
stantiate the arguments advanced in its favor. In the 
case of the meetings the more elevated tone was partly 
due to the increased proportion of women in the audi- 
ences, and the improved atmosphere at the school voting 
places was helped by the same cause where woman 
suffrage obtains, the probable granting of which in other 
States will itself give emphasis to the demand for the use 
of schools for these purposes. The general existence of 
commodious auditoriums in high schools gives both ap- 
propriateness and insistence to the movement for their 
more universal dedication to the clarification of civic 
questions. 

Another requisition upon school halls, plainly marked 
by the spirit of the age, is expressed in the agitation for 
free lectures, concerts, municipally subsidized theatrical 
undertakings, and other forms of State-supported cul- 
tural opportunities. 

Reinforcing this demand, as well as all the others, is 
the economical temper which animates the movement to 
conserve the nation's natural resources and is manifested 
in the various schemes for " scientific management." 
The sight of costly, magnificent buildings lying idle dur- 
ing periods when they could be beneficially used is re- 
pugnant to the business sense of the community, and 



526 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

as a consequence every legitimate appeal for their more 
extensive utilization meets with a quick response from 
public sentiment. 

Doubt as to the reality of the school's increasing role 
in public recreation may be aroused in some minds by 
such instances as Chicago's park and playground sys- 
tem with its luxurious field houses, the several cities 
which have erected auditorium buildings, and the rapid 
growth of municipal baths, parks, and museums. These 
are to be interpreted, however, only as evidences of the 
general advance of the recreation movement. In its 
course it is affecting schools, parks, piers, squares — every 
institution, in fact, that is susceptible of application to 
recreational needs. What makes it certain that school 
property will be universally appropriated is its unusual 
capacity for this broader community use. Auditori- 
ums, gymnasiums, baths, museums, libraries, play fields 
— these things schools need for their own purposes, and 
the people are providing them with an increasing liber- 
ality. Is it likely that they will be overlooked in the 
popular requisitioning of facilities for enjoyment, espe- 
cially in view of the fact that these are usually idle at the 
very time when the people are free to use them? In no 
community is there yet an adequate provision for recre- 
ation and social life, and even if all the future parks have 
field houses and all the squares be converted into play- 
grounds, considerations of fitness and economy will still 
require the school to meet a large part of this need. 
Chicago, despite its magnificent system of parks anc 
recreation buildings, is progressively equipping its publi< 
schools as social centres. 

More Power to Principal. — At the present time there 
is no tendency either in secondary school administration 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 527 

or in current social development that will bring about a 
permanent diminution of the forces which are increasing 
the public's immediate enjoyment of high school facili- 
ties. The growth of commercial amusement resorts 
seems only to render more necessary the competition of 
those under safer auspices, while friction with the regular 
school work produces at most only a temporary let-up in 
the outside activities. The pressure behind the latter is 
continuous, and an attempt to shut them off would create 
an intolerable situation. An examination of the causes 
of irritation, the misuse of equipment by volunteers or 
the board-of-education staff, the public criticism of badly 
managed meetings, or the annoyance of having con- 
stantly to decide between conflicting requests for various 
facilities — these, when analyzed, would show that they 
were all due either to a division of responsibility, inade- 
quate help, or some other defect in the administrative 
machinery. The activities themselves not being intrin- 
sically illegal or socially undesirable, but, on the other 
hand, highly important, the remedy would obviously be 
found to consist in providing the organization necessary 
for their smooth and proper direction. 

Accordingly, as these situations arise, and their in- 
creasing inevitability seems guaranteed by all the ten- 
dencies of the times, principals will point out that with 
more assistance they can themselves handle these mat- 
ters with less friction and more efficiency, and eventually 
they will be granted the requisite additions to their staffs. 
Even in the cases where the extension activities are now 
carried on by a special department of the board of edu- 
cation or of the municipal government the frequent col- 
lisions between them and the principal's own public pro- 
grammes and the need — which will increase with the 



528 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

development of efficiency standards — of adapting the 
former to the peculiarities of the school's constituency 
will ultimately bring about the combination of both sets 
of activities under the local head. Thus through the 
very growth in the volume of the high school's incidental 
activities will come the structural change required for the 
adequate discharge of the new social function. 

Development of New Function by Principal. — The 
placing of social-centre assistants under the principal will 
inevitably stimulate his enterprise in this field. The 
natural desire to retain the new power and even ag- 
grandize it will make him strive to justify his possession 
of it. Through its employment he will be better able to 
impress the public with the usefulness of his institution 
and their wisdom in giving it liberal support. When, 
however, he devotes himself thoroughly to the task of 
working out better administrative methods — an unavoid- 
able necessity because the social-centre technic is still 
in the making — there will be opened up to him a new 
source of interest. For he will discover in the extension 
activities themselves unsuspected assistance for the solu- 
tion of the new and perplexing problems which society is 
more and more adding to his main function. 

Changing Content of Public Education. — The agitation 
for the school inspection of children's teeth has not yet 
accomplished its purpose in some places, while in others 
it is not only established but some of the wisdom which 
it carries in solution has been precipitated in the form of 
a tooth-brush drill administered by the teacher. Herein 
we see a new phase of personal conduct becoming, under 
the influence of social expediency, a subject of school 
training. Not many years ago a girl's experience in 
helping her mother with the housework was considered 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 529 

a sufficient preparation for the responsibilities of house- 
keeping. But industrial and urban conditions have so 
changed many homes that that experience is no longer 
generally considered adequate, and the school has been 
called upon to supply this part of the future housewife's 
training. Cooking and sewing were the first parts of 
housekeeping to be added to the curriculum, but now in 
many systems it includes laundry work, serving meals, 
and room decoration. The extraordinary extent to which 
formal education is being called into the traditional 
realm of family life is indicated by the agitation for voca- 
tional guidance and sex education and by the instruc- 
tion concerning personal expenditures and avocations 
already being given in some schools. An example here 
is to be found in Mrs. Farnsworth's course in practical 
arts for girls, which is outlined in "High School Educa- 
tion " (page 428) . These instances point to a progressive 
extension of the secondary school curriculum until it 
shall comprehend the preparation of pupils for the suc- 
cessful meeting of all of the important situations encoun- 
tered in human living. Practically only one phase of life, 
the religious one, is now omitted from its scope, and 
even that, so far as its applications to conduct meet with 
general approval, is represented in the schemes for moral 
education at present projected or in operation. 

The pupil's ultimate success is dependent not only 
upon the possession of trained powers but upon his 
ability to co-ordinate them, upon his skill in arraying 
them for attack upon the resistant situations of life. He 
may graduate with honors in electricity, but if he is un- 
able to make an effective presentation of his case to em- 
ployers, has not been trained in team-work, or has not 
formed the habit of achieving obvious and available re- 



530 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

suits he will be a failure and bring reproach upon the insti- 
tution which hopefully turned him out. The increas- 
ing esteem in which vocational courses, especially home 
economics in its highly elaborated form, are held by both 
educators and society in general is undoubtedly largely 
due to the fact that they do effect practical syntheses of 
abilities. Similarly, the tendency in these courses to 
require work under the actual industrial and domestic 
conditions shows a growing appreciation of the necessity 
of training the pupil in the art of applying his powers. 
Even more significant is the increasing seriousness with 
which managing glee and athletic clubs, society presi- 
dencies, and participation in other " student activities" 
are regarded by school authorities. The conspicuous 
after-success frequently achieved by the graduate who 
had led in these non-academic affairs has caused an 
examination of their preparative value, and it is being 
discovered that they afford most useful practice in the 
art of forming social relationships. They derive their 
efficacy from the fact that they are exact facsimiles, 
slightly reduced, of adult social functionings. Skill in 
" making" the miniature organizations was bound to en- 
hance the ability to "make" the bigger groups through 
which the affairs of mature life are practically all trans- 
acted. 

The success, then, for which society demands that the 
high school shall give an adequate training is certitude 
in the ability of the outgoing individuals to make vital 
connections with the groups 1 of which society itself is 
composed. Development of all the pupil's faculties is 

1 See further amplifications of this point in the sections which follow 
upon the high school as a vocational, social, civic, recreation, and cultural 
centre. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 531 

not enough: he must be adapted for group life, not that 
he may lose his individuality but that it may come to 
that fuller realization which is made possible only by 
working with others and dividing tasks. 

Pedagogical Value of Social-Centre Function. — The 
fact that social-centre work is essentially a group-form- 
ing process makes it immediately apparent why the high 
school principal is going to find it of value in connec- 
tion with his newer, social duties to his regular pupils. 
Hitherto he has not been accustomed to think about the 
basis upon which people divide into sets, cliques, and 
societies, but in supervising club activities, basket-ball 
teams, and dancing parties his thoughts will immediately 
be engaged by that problem. He will find new generali- 
zations and little recorded knowledge by which to guide 
his steps, but as he tries one plan after another in the 
new work he cannot fail to accumulate helpful experience. 
The social-centre annex will be a laboratory in which he 
can experiment without endangering his main work with 
the consequences of costly mistakes, a place where he can 
acquire skill for the moulding of the social destinies of his 
regular pupils. It will enable his instructors to gain 
practical experience in the fields of their teaching and 
bring their students into actual contact with the con- 
crete realities underlying the abstractions of the class- 
room. 

Further explanation of the social centre's applicability 
to the high school's latest problem is to be seen in the 
fact that its main aspects — not yet all equally emerged, 
however — correspond fairly closely to the lines along 
which the natural groupings of human beings occur. 
These are the vocational, social, civic, recreational, and 
cultural lines, and it is significant that they mark the 



532 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

principal categories into which the achievements and 
failures of men and women fall. 

High School as a Vocational Centre. — Only he who 
supplies all his wants with the products of his own hands 
has a vocational problem that is devoid of social aspects. 
Every one else has to find persons with whom to exchange 
the things he makes for those he wants. The task of 
connecting laborers with the consumers of labor, or with 
bodies standing in an intermediate relation to them, has 
not yet been undertaken to any extent by systems of 
public education. Some private institutions systemati- 
cally endeavor to " place" their graduates, and universi- 
ties are giving the matter increasing attention, but, with 
the exception of a few instances, high schools have not 
yet assumed this responsibility. Furthermore, neither 
the instructor who prepares nor the principal who at- 
tempts to " place" a student has become sufficiently con- fr 
scious of the fact that in these days it is a firm, a cor- 
poration, a staff, a force, a corps, a bureau, a gang, a field 
party, a union, or some other kind of a group with which 
their charge will have to make connection, and that while 
his initial admission may depend upon his satisfying an 
individual, his permanence therein will, in the long run, 
be determined by his acceptability to the whole body of 
which he forms an intimate part. Consciousness of pre- 
cisely this sort is what will result from any attempt by 
the high school social-centre staff to fit persons into posi- 
tions in modern professional, commercial, or industrial 
life. 

Employment bureaus as a part of the school's social 
function have been advocated by Professor Commons 
and others, and in connection with several social-centre 
undertakings an effort has been made to furnish in- 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 533 

formation about both vacant positions and jobless 
workers. Nourishment for the seed thus planted is 
bound to be afforded by the attempts to render a voca- 
tional guidance to high school graduates, as it will be 
found that valuable advice can be given only upon a 
much larger basis of information than is at present pos- 
sessed. It is the exceptional youth who at so early an 
age sees clearly what his calling will be or whose peculiar 
abilities are so distinct as to enable others to decide for 
him. For the great majority the final determination will 
be made only after much experimentation, and many 
mistakes will be avoided and much time saved if there 
can be some official to whom after each trial he can freely 
go for advice as to the next step. Manifestly, the per- 
son most suitable for this office is one to whom the appli- 
cant's class records would be accessible. The data in 
time gathered by such an officer would not only make his 
counsel of priceless value to the graduate but would also 
have great significance for the faculty in its task of fit- 
ting young people for advantageous economic connec- 
tions with society. While such a service would be jus- 
tified if its benefits were given only to alumni of the 
school, its effectiveness, even in serving them, might be 
enhanced if it were open to the public at large. 1 It would 
thus receive a wider knowledge of the various occupa- 
tional conditions, have more experience for comparative 
purposes, and be able to command more generous sup- 
port from the State. And who knows but that out of its 
operations there might finally be distilled an essence that 

1 See " The Wisconsin Free Employment Offices," a bulletin (vol. II, 
no. 9) of the Industrial Commission of Wisconsin, for an account of their 
workings and the need of separate provisions (p. 218) for clerical and 
skilled workers. 



534 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

would tend to quiet the troubled waters in which labor 
and capital are now immersed! 

A Centre of Social Life. — Adjustment to groups for 
purposes of companionship is an affair in which the aver- 
age young person seldom attains to the height of his 
opportunity. And yet success in this respect is quite as 
important as success in any other phase of life. For evi- 
dence, one needs only to recall the acquaintance whose 
career has been changed permanently for the better by 
joining a certain club, or that other whose reputation has 
been irretrievably damaged through association with a 
fast set, or, still more convincing, those numerous friends 
whose futures have been made or unmade by their mar- 
riages. At the first glance it might seem that here was a 
department of life in which no rules could be applied. A 
little reflection reveals, however, that any province of 
action in which one course is followed with evil results 
and another with good is amenable to generalization 
because there must be reasons for the different effects, 
and where reasons exist there, sooner or later, will be 
found material for the teacher. Young people who are 
reared in homes having well-defined social traditions cus- 
tomarily step out into the world of relationships with 
assurance; but the example, the precept, and the atmos- 
phere which have moulded them are not by any means 
universal, even in the habitations of the rich, and, as a 
consequence, the school is being called upon to supply 
the deficiency. The private school has already begun to 
give a definite social training (see the syllabus of the 
Horace Mann School, Section IV, Social Relations and 
Conduct, vol. I, p. 439) and the public secondary school 
is about to follow in its steps. 

Preparation for social life is still largely a matter of 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 535 

ample practice under wise oversight. Before generali- 
zations suitable for impartation to students to be ap- 
plied by themselves can be worked out much observa- 
tion and experimentation will be required. For both 
the practice and the study the social centre offers excep- 
tional opportunities. In the undertakings of this sort 
now being carried on conclusions of general application 
are already being reached, but so far they are mainly 
retrievals of the mistakes which are always made in the 
beginning of novel enterprises. For example, it was felt 
that extensions of social opportunities under public aus- 
pices must necessarily be gratuitous, open to all, because 
the public pays for their support. It is now seen that 
making them free to all tends, in effect, to limit them to a 
part of the public — to those persons, namely, who are not 
in the enjoyment of the usual social relationships and 
advantages. People associate with one another because 
they enjoy one another's company, not from a sense of 
duty or any other form of compulsion. Since differences 
of tastes, manners, creeds, languages, and innumerable 
other variations prevent everybody from liking every- 
body else, pleasurable fellowship can only take place on 
the basis of groups in which there is some sort of com- 
munity of feeling. And so the wise social-centre director 
is now dealing with coteries and cliques, and mainly those 
which are self-formed, because the business of dividing a 
crowd into groups which will stick together has not yet 
been reduced to a science. Another principle which 
appears to be emerging indicates that groups must be 
allowed to have, as they do in the outside world, different 
scales of expenditure, since in this way they find greater 
opportunity for distinctive expression, but the range and 
limitations of this principle have not been clearly defined. 



536 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

One of the most vital of the many problems still un- 
solved in the field of social relations concerns dancing. 
The obvious inability of the home either to afford it 
proper opportunity or to prohibit its occurrence else- 
where, the disastrous results of the laisser-faire policy, 
and, lastly, its probable relevancy to that most important 
of all social processes, mating, make it imperative that 
the school, and because of its adolescent relation, es- 
pecially the high school, endeavor to find its wise solu- 
tion. 

The addition of the social centre will not only facilitate 
the giving of systematic supervision to the social activi- 
ties of present students, which is their immediate need, 
but promote their deliberate development into forms less 
disfigured by an undesirable class consciousness. It will 
be able to do this because of the wider circle which it will 
include and because of the study and experimentation 
that will be made necessary by the exigencies of the 
larger and more difficult undertaking of improving social 
life generally. 

As a Centre of Civic Activity. — The tremendous im- 
portance to our civic welfare of the basis upon which 
electors form party ties needs no amplification. And 
yet the method of determining what party to join or 
when to leave it is a subject comparatively untouched in 
institutions which the State is supporting ostensibly for 
the preservation of the democratic form of government. 
It is another striking evidence of the lack of a social 
view-point in our systems of public education. A com- 
plete treatment of the manner in which converting the 
high school into a civic centre 1 will remedy this defect 

1 The civic aspects of the social centre are fully discussed in " The Social 
Center," by Edward J. Ward. D. Appleton and Co., New York. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 537 

is not possible in the compass of this chapter, but a few 
of the main points may be set down. 

In the first place, by opening the building to party 
rallies, non-partisan discussions, primaries, and the bal- 
lot-box, the tone of political activity will be raised^and 
it will be brought under the eyes of the students where 
its lessons can be effectively deduced by the faculty. 
Again, by promoting and organizing full and fair discus- 
sions of civic questions the distinction can be sharply 
drawn between groups for forming opinion and groups for 
securing action. The institution of a political forum 1 
in a public school is, it is true, a perilous proceeding and 
one which can be successfully carried through only by 
those possessed of the greatest tact and ability. But if 
success can be attained there is no more effective way of 
impressing upon the minds of future voters the need of 
clear thinking before and separate from action, and thus 
restoring some badly needed idealism to American politi- 
cal life. A basis for deciding when to compromise with 
personal convictions in order to secure results and when 
to hold out at all hazards can be developed by means 
of a systematic observation and analysis of the activities 
of civic clubs, adult or otherwise, miniature congresses, 
and local improvement associations which are organized 
in the social-centre department. 

The instructional value of holding in the auditorium 
meetings for the consideration of amendments proposed 
for the State constitution, or welcoming ceremonies for 
newly naturalized citizens when certificates are presented 
to immigrants and addresses are delivered by the mayor 

1 See "Lessons Learned in Rochester," by Professor George M. Forbes, 
a bulletin issued by the University Extension Division of the University 
of Wisconsin. 



538 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

and leading citizens — this needs no further comment. 
How they will vivify the images received in the history 
and civil government classes is obvious to every one. 

As a Recreation Centre. — The social nature of the 
really successful forms of recreation is already widely 
recognized. The predominance of team games and com- 
petitions over calisthenics and solitary training is every- 
where evident. The high school graduate of to-day 
needs no admonition to join a club, a team, or some other 
group when he wishes to build up tired muscles or remove 
the cobwebs from his brain. It is true, also, that the reg- 
ular athletic activities of the average high school give its 
facilities fairly constant utilization; but there are also 
pedagogical advantages to be gained from an extension of 
their use, so far as possible, to individuals outside the 
student body. Through the opportunity of observing 
further the development of old students, the school's 
regular physical-training staff will be able to draw useful 
conclusions as to the after-effects of the several kinds of 
athletic competitions and the different regimens pre- 
scribed to secure proficiency. Proclivities whose vicious- 
ness was hardly distinguishable in adolescent students 
will be seen in adulthood in their true character. The 
instructors will also compare with interest the physiques, 
sporting standards, and moral habits of graduates and 
those of persons without a secondary education. 

The fixing of amateur ideals among the students will 
be facilitated through the mere increasing of the volume 
of non-professional sports in the city, and in the same 
way the cause of clean athletics will be advanced. 
Those of the faculty interested in moral training will be 
able to observe the working of various rules with groups 
of different stages of culture and in general to watch 
habits of fair play being woven into the warp of char- 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 539 

acter, while for mankind as a whole there should come 
greater progress in the solution of the problem of indi- 
vidual recreation. 

The prediction that the extension activities will bear 
fruit of value to the regular curriculum of physical educa- 
tion is verified in New York City by the fact that some 
of the group exercises developed by the Public Schools 
Athletic League, an organization to promote after-class 
sports among pupils, have been incorporated in the offi- 
cial course of study. 

Among the passive agencies of recreation are to be in- 
cluded motion pictures, theatricals, concerts, illustrated 
lectures, and other forms of mental entertainment, but 
since these are so intimately related to cultural activities 
in general their treatment will be reserved for the follow- 
ing section. 

As a Cultural Centre. — That canon of art instruction 
which exalts even crude versification, so it be animated 
with genuine feeling, over the slavish imitation of classic 
models, will receive much reinforcement in the minds of 
the regular students from the efforts to socialize the cul- 
tural activities of the community. The democratization 
of art proceeds not alone by popular entertainment but 
by popular participation as well. The great masters do 
indeed inspire, but if no outlet is given to the feelings 
thus stimulated the transmission of the art movement is 
stopped. Accordingly, in this department of the social 
centre there will be continual endeavors to arrange liter- 
ary, musical, and artistic programmes in which ama- 
teurs generally, rather than professionals exclusively, 
will take the active part. Local dramatic clubs, for 
example, will be encouraged to present significant plays, 
using those of local origin whenever these attain to a 
feasible standard. Incipient instrumentalists will be or- 



540 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ganized into orchestras, and popular choruses will be 
formed to give a musical background to the numerous 
lectures and general entertainments at the centre. 

A very effective means of objectifying current life and 
giving it a common meaning is to be found in the pag- 
eant, especially in its modern form, wherein all the social 
forces, which have made the community's past and are 
now making its future, are realistically or symbolically 
presented in a moving, spectacular, out-of-doors drama. 
In the case of a high school favored with a stadium, like 
the one at Tacoma, such an event might fittingly take 
place upon its grounds; but, wherever it were held, its 
organization, conduct, and leading parts might very 
properly be undertaken by a social-centre staff. Other 
occasions calling for broad activities of a similar order are 
afforded by the national and local holidays. The effort 
to make the observance of the Fourth of July not only 
harmlessly enjoyable but also significant has of necessity 
made it a community affair. To celebrate properly the 
nation's natal day, May Day, and Labor Day, it is the 
growing practice to arrange a parade, a festival, a car- 
nival, or some other city-wide occasion in which all the 
elements of the community are joyfully fused by some 
magnificent spectacle resplendent with color, jubilant 
with sound, and redolent of patriotic meaning. The or- 
ganization or at least stimulation of and participation in 
such events as these come within the proper function of 
the social centre, and they, like many of its own affairs, 
would also afford excellent outlets for the athletic, lit- 
erary, oratorical, musical, and artistic activities of the 
regular high school students. 1 

1 See Chapter XXII for an account of a high school which has become 
the art centre of a community. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 541 

The debating clubs and singing societies of the ward 
school centres might be organized into leagues and fed- 
erations for the purpose of holding contests or tourna- 
ments, the final events of which — or possibly all of them — 
could appropriately be held in the high school auditorium 
under the auspices of its social-centre staff. The emula- 
tion thus stimulated would quicken and refine intellec- 
tual and emotional life in all parts of the community. 
The informative and entertaining power of motion pic- 
tures could be increased and purified if exhibitions of 
films of the best educational and literary types were reg- 
ularly held in the auditorium. The charging of a small 
admission fee would not only help to distribute the ex- 
pense more equitably but tend to hold the management 
up to a higher level of efficiency, while the extension of 
the market for films of a high character would give a 
much-needed stimulus to their production by the man- 
ufacturers. 

In the selection of subjects for lectures, picture exhibi- 
tions, in the planning of all the incidental activities, the 
special needs of the community, whether uttered or still 
unconscious, should be borne in mind, as the degree in 
which these were met would determine the amount of 
patronage and support the offerings would receive. Sim- 
ilarly, in the public-library service, 1 which would form a 
part of the social-centre equipment, the books and lists 
displayed could all be related to the current topics of the 
times. The policy of thus making the social-centre facili- 
ties quickly responsive to the wants of the community 
could not fail of a fertilizing influence upon all its expres- 
sional activities. Upon the minds of both instructor and 

x In this connection see also Chapter XVIII, "The Socializing Func- 
tion of the High School Library." 



542 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

pupil would be continually impressed the fact, too little 
appreciated in existing systems of education, that art is 
a product of the interaction between society and the 
individual. 

Differentiation of the Social Centre in High and Ward 
Schools. — If the educational and social tendencies which 
have been outlined herein are real and, through their 
reciprocal action, cause a development along the lines 
which have been indicated, the high school social centre 
will in time show characteristics plainly distinguishing 
it from that of the elementary school. Its clientele will 
probably come from the city as a whole or at least a large 
district thereof, and it will, therefore, serve naturally as 
the centre at large. In athletics it will tend to be the 
place where the matches between teams representing 
social centres in different sections of the city are held 
rather than the place for the regular practice of neighbor- 
hood groups. The city-wide basket-ball tournament 
among department-store fives, for instance, may begin 
in the ward centres, but it will probably culminate in the 
more spacious gymnasium at the high school. 

In social activities there will be a natural selection of 
the participants on the basis not of locality but of sim- 
ilarity of tastes or purposes. A reception to a person of 
more than local prominence will naturally take place here, 
while affairs of a more neighborhood character will occur 
in the ward school. The municipal choruses, the mem- 
bership of which comes from all parts of the city, will 
have their home in the high school, and here the great 
oratorios and more pretentious amateur theatricals will 
be presented. As a civic forum the high school platform 
will be the place where questions of the municipality will 
be thrashed out, while in the ward school the local im- 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 543 

provements will be the more pertinent subjects for dis- 
cussion. Lectures and other occasions of a cultural na- 
ture which appeal to highly developed tastes and abilities 
will find their home in the high school auditorium, as well 
as those of a more general import. The facilities and 
need for study and experimentation possessed by the 
faculty of the secondary school will tend to make it a 
social and civic laboratory, while the activity of the ward 
school staff will be mainly that of administration. 

Steps Immediately Practical. — In advance of the 
granting to the high school organization of the adminis- 
trative machinery which would be required for the com- 
prehensive plan that has been sketched, there are certain 
feasible steps by which a beginning can be made. The 
first of these is the adoption of a definite policy in favor 
of the social-centre activities. One of the ways in which 
such an attitude would first manifest itself would be in 
arrangements whereby some of the regular staff could 
assist with the extension work. 1 For example, the phys- 
ical-training director would probably be willing, for a 
slight additional compensation, to give some time to the 
development of athletics among the youths who attend 
the evening high school. The woman in charge of the 
girls' physical education could probably find time for 
some instruction in folk dancing for the young women 
from stores and factories. 

As soon as possible, of course, an assistant should be 
appointed who could give time and thought to the de- 
velopment and management of all the social-centre ac- 
tivities. Such an official would be able to obtain much 
assistance from voluntary organizations interested in 

1 In the Los Angeles High School the night school and the social centre 
have been placed under one head. 



544 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

social welfare, or if there happened to be none available, 
he might himself well undertake the promotion of one 
among some of the more prominent citizens. With the 
sympathy and aid of the school authorities behind him, 
he might find among the faculty some volunteers for 
club work, chaperonage, and other supervisory duties. 
The policy of organizing self-supporting activities would, 
in time, enable an extension of the social-centre force. 
Motion-picture shows, social dancing, club memberships, 
and entertainments, if properly managed, can all be 
made to give an income which could be applied to the 
maintenance of these and similar activities. 

In the inauguration of new and unusual uses of the 
schoolhouse, the wise director will give considerable 
thought to the inculcation in the minds of the incoming 
public of the right ways of using the school building. 
When the political meetings were first held in the Jersey 
City High School careful directions about the proper 
exits and ingresses were published in the papers and dis- 
seminated by means of handbills. Sometimes, on such 
occasions, admission is only by ticket, a method which 
has the advantage of limiting the crowd and assuring the 
selection of the right people. A clear statement of the 
various privileges and prohibitions at the outset will pre- 
vent much friction later. It is always difficult to enforce 
rules which have not been well promulgated. 

Conclusion. — The preparation for life's struggles which 
boys and girls received at home in the period before the 
industries had departed from it is still extolled by stu- 
dents of education. In those rural days the boy worked 
beside his father, observed and imitated him in the per- 
formance of an infinitely varied round of tasks. Every 
lesson learned was inseparably associated with some 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 545 

difficulty of vital importance which the lad himself had 
experienced. No sooner had one responsibility found a 
secure place upon his shoulders than another and bigger 
one slipped into position ready for their squaring. Edu- 
cation was a growing rather than a forcing process be- 
cause it took place in the midst of a real life and was a 
natural part of it. 

Is it beyond the realm of possibility that the high 
school will some day be the scene of so much of the city's 
social and civic life that the youth reared therein, inti- 
mately associated with the leaders and helping to bear 
their burdens, will receive a training for citizenship to 
which future historians will be able to award an equal 
meed of praise? 



CHAPTER XXII 

CONTINUATION WORK IN THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Calvin Olin Davis, Ph.D. 

JUNIOR PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 

Definitions. — The expressions " Continuation School" 
and " Continuation Work" are employed in America 
with equivocal meanings. Seeking to embody the idea 
and spirit of the Fortbildungschulen of Germany, the 
first enthusiasts for these schools very naturally over- 
stressed the features that stood out most prominently to 
the superficial observer. This feature is the vocational 
one. Hence continuation schools at the outset came to 
imply a type of school usually organized and adminis- 
tered by authorities other than those having charge of 
the regular system of schools, and aiming to give a voca- 
tional training to such youths as have' completed the 
elementary schools or have reached the age of fourteen 
and have engaged in some form of industry or other work. 
Viewed thus, the new type of school merely continued the 
opportunities to secure the elements of an education, or- 
ganized, however, with reference solely to skill in the 
particular arts of their trade. Regarded in this sense, 
continuation schools are nearly or quite synonymous 
with apprenticeship schools and trade-schools. 

A second interpretation of the expressions was truer to 
the German ideal. This was not only to continue the 

546 



CONTINUATION WORK 547 

opportunity for securing an elementary education beyond 
the age of fourteen but to compel attendance at such 
schools for a definite period. Moreover, while vocational 
training constituted the nucleus of the work, the training 
did not stop there but included also religious, civic, 
moral, and hygienic instruction. 

Recently continuation work has come to have a still 
larger and broader signification. Under the caption are 
now included all forms of instruction and training, both 
general and technical, which are provided for pupils 
who have left the elementary schools and which aim to 
continue or supplement the education received in the 
regularly organized elementary school — excepting only 
such education as is secured in the traditional courses 
and in the traditional forms and ways of the regular high 
school. Indeed, every extension of subject-matter made 
in the interest of social and practical needs, every differ- 
entiation of courses made with reference to some newly 
felt demand, and every change in administration affect- 
ing the question of hours of attendance, election of work, 
and modification of method represents, even in the tra- 
ditional high school, something in the way of continua- 
tion work. Such work has for its aim the development 
of an individual not only as a workman but as a citizen 
and a man. It seeks equally to improve the personal, 
the economic, and the social worth of each human being 
to whom it ministers and hence very aptly is sometimes 
designated " improvement work." It is "continuation 
work" or " improvement work" in this larger and 
broader meaning of the terms that is considered in this 
chapter. 

Historical Sketch. — Continuation schools as distinct 
from apprenticeship schools and as agencies for con- 



548 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tinning the rudiments of education received in the ele- 
mentary schools had their rise in Germany as early as 
the latter part of the sixteenth century. At the outset 
they were organized as Sunday schools and sought dur- 
ing an hour or two each Sunday to give instruction in the 
three R's and religion. Attendance upon such schools 
soon was made obligatory on all youths, girls as well as 
boys, up to the age of eighteen, or (in case of girls) till 
marriage. In time vocational or apprenticeship instruc- 
tion was added to the course, and the aim of the schools 
became threefold; namely, personal culture, industrial 
skill, and patriotism. In time, too, week-day and eve- 
ning continuation schools grew up. 

In 1869, exactly three hundred years after the first 
continuation school was established, the North German 
Federation of States authorized by law any local political 
body to compel attendance at continuation schools upon 
all workmen up to the age of eighteen years and to 
require employers to grant the necessary time to em- 
ployees to attend such schools. This law became the 
basis for the Imperial Industrial Law of 1891, which has 
continued in force until to-day the essential provisions 
of the older law. 

With the larger awakening to social responsibility in the 
United States in the past decade, with the intensification 
of industrial conditions and the specialization of labor 
everywhere during the same period, and with the fuller 
appreciation of the educational needs of the age and 
the educational efforts being put forth by Germany and 
other European countries to meet these needs, there has 
come into America also, since about 1900, an enthusiasm 
for continuation schools. And yet, withal, there has been 
but relatively little progress toward the actual establish- 



CONTINUATION WORK 549 

ment of schools of this kind. To quote from the latest 
report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1 
it seems that "with the vocational principle fully ac- 
knowledged, with more or less complete systems of vo- 
cational education in operation in a half-dozen States 
and in numerous cities, and with constant demands from 
all sources for the extension of vocational training, the 
movement is not yet making the headway in practice 
that it should." 

The fact of the case is that up to a very recent date 
continuation work in the United States has signified 
solely vocational work. To-day there is seemingly a 
keener appreciation of what real continuation training 
involves. There is a recognition that vocational train- 
ing cannot safely nor feasibly be given without founding 
it upon the fundamentals of a general education. Hence, 
the period upon which America has entered at present is 
one of experimenting and testing, one fraught with great 
possibilities but likewise with great dangers. 

It is in the hopes of presenting the salient conditions 
that confront the situation to-day, of suggesting some 
principles upon which procedure must be based, and in 
offering some practical suggestions that this chapter has 
been undertaken. 

The Present Situation. — It seems clearly apparent to 
any who make a study of social conditions in the United 
States and who scrutinize the work of the public schools 
that the present organization, administration, and re- 
sults of education are unsatisfactory. Investigate where 
one may, the same general defects are to be found. 
" Retardation," "ehmination," and "dissatisfaction" 
are almost universal complaints. Scores of young peo- 

1 Commissioner of Education Report, 191 2, vol. I, p. 21. 



550 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

pie seek and grasp at the most trivial excuses to forsake 
the schools. Economic pressure, ill health, and mental 
incapacity are, of course, responsible for a considerable 
number of these defections, but they account for only a 
small percentage of the total. Bulletins recently issued 
by the United States Bureau of Education prove conclu- 
sively that "from one half to three fourths of the girls 
at work in the factories [at Worcester, Mass.] could have 
had further schooling if they had wanted to or if their 
parents had cared to insist upon it." 1 

Investigations in other communities reveal similar 
conditions. Moreover, "the majority of young girls who 
leave school to go to work are only fourteen years of 
age" and "the work offered in the grammar-schools has 
been completed by only a small proportion" of them. 
More alarming still is the fact that "the number of four- 
teen-to-sixteen-year-old girls leaving school to go to work 
is increasing" at a much greater rate than "the percent- 
age of increase in population." 2 

What is true respecting girls is likewise true respecting 
boys — and in a more exaggerated form. 

The real explanation, therefore, of the excessive school 
mortality between the ages of ten and fifteen is the dis- 
like of the school as it is to-day organized and admin- 
istered and the desire for greater manual, physical, and 
social activity than the school affords. "Such facts em- 
phasize the large demand for training which gives oppor- 
tunity for manual combined with mental development." 
They also give warrant and justification for providing 
improvement or continuation work on a generous scale 
and for extending the period of State control over the 

1 Special Bulletin 2A, 1152, of the U. S. Bureau of Education. 

2 Bulletin No. 17, U. S. Bureau of Education, p. 11. 



CONTINUATION WORK 551 

education of individuals until the age of sixteen or 
eighteen. To exempt youths suddenly from institutional 
control at the period of early adolescence — the most 
critical and unstable period of life and the period in which 
parental control is least effective — is psychologically most 
illogical, morally most reprehensible, economically most 
wasteful, and politically most unwise. Freed from close 
parental care and from school discipline, they not infre- 
quently drift upon the active world of business and seek 
to satisfy their newly awakened sense of responsibility, 
personality, and power in its bustling life. Moreover, 
the business world unconsciously fosters the determina- 
tion of many boys and girls to forsake school permanently 
by inviting them to enter any number of youthful jobs 
in which regularity of hours of labor, considerable free 
time, and relatively attractive compensation prove irre- 
sistible allurements. But, for the most part, such posi- 
tions offer little opportunity for growth in insight, skill, 
or financial advancement. They afford the maximum 
of rewards at the outset and hence yield diminishing 
returns. 

Meanwhile, natural and social interests are multiplied 
for the youths and economic demands are increased. In- 
ability to satisfy these in a legitimate and normal manner 
leads, too often, first to dissatisfaction with the job, then 
to carelessness in work, and, finally, to dismissal or resig- 
nation. For some months the story is repeated at in- 
tervals, each new venture producing a more calloused 
individual, a more antisocial citizen, and a more irre- 
sponsible workman. The inevitable final result is degen- 
eration to the ranks of the criminal or the socially de- 
pendent, or the crushing of spirit and the reduction to the 
condition of stolid, embittered workmen, or else a re- 



552 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

arousing of aspirations and an effort to increase one's 
efficiency and social ranking even at a belated day. 

The Awakened Interest. — Revelations of the existing 
conditions have recently awakened the state and indus- 
try alike to an appreciation of their mutual interests and 
of their higher obligations. Industry has felt the lack 
of apprentices and of workmen properly trained to fill 
important positions as foremen, supervisors, and direct- 
ors. It has recognized, too, that skill alone cannot pro- 
duce the desirable workman, but that intellectual alert- 
ness, moral responsibility, and physical health are equally 
essential elements. Likewise, the state has come to a 
clearer conception of her legitimate functions. She has 
come to appreciate the fact that her own highest political, 
civic, economic, commercial, and social interests can best 
be conserved and promoted if the body of her citizens be 
trained not only to contented self-support but to a real- 
ization of the aims and functions of government, the 
instruments and processes of civil society, and the interre- 
lations and interdependencies of social and political insti- 
tutions. That is to say, in place of the old laissez-faire 
doctrine of the function of government there is substituted 
the newer socialistic or paternalistic theory of the state. 

Conclusions from the Facts and Theories.— In the 
light of the newer theories respecting the obligations of 
state and industry there is but one conclusion — namely, 
a more complete democratic realization of society and of 
the agencies employed by society to promote its welfare 
and progress must be developed. The schools, repre- 
senting one type of these agencies, cannot escape the ef- 
fects of this general evolutionary tendency if they would. 
The lesson is plain : public education must be made avail- 
able for all and adapted to the special needs of each. 



CONTINUATION WORK 553 

It is just this enlarged conception of the purpose and 
function of public education that has produced the de- 
mand for continuation work for those who in their earlier 
years were unable to avail themselves of the opportuni- 
ties of the regular school, or neglected to take advantage 
of them, or were unable to profit from the instruction fur- 
nished therein. Moreover, since the first law of life is 
self-preservation and hence of an activity that shall pro- 
vide a livelihood, and since the dominant impulse of 
adolescence is participation in social affairs that are seen 
to function not too remotely in useful forms, continua- 
tion work that is to attract and stimulate and prove 
thoroughly successful must, in the majority of instances, 
be centred in vocational interests and be dominated by 
the vocational spirit. Vocational training, in turn, is in- 
timately connected with the questions of vocational and 
avocational guidance and with the employment of the 
school buildings as social centres, topics treated elsewhere 
in this book. 

Principles Governing Continuation Work.— Before 
considering the ways and means of conducting continua- 
tion work, wisdom dictates the policy of formulating at 
least a few guiding educational principles. These may 
be categorically stated thus: 

i. Human interests are diverse and express themselves 
in different forms and in varying degrees in each in- 
dividual. 

2. Personal power and happiness, and hence social wel- 
fare, are most enhanced when each individual has, as 
fully as possible, developed his real native interests — 
provided these interests are not immoral or antisocial. 

3. Personal development can take place in greatest 
degree when it is kept in harmony with natural apti- 



554 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tudes and ambitions and not sought by agencies working 
against or at cross-purposes with these. 

4. It is impossible truly to educate any being without 
reference to some clearly conceived end or aim — though 
such ends or aims may be set up more remotely for cer- 
tain types of minds than for others. 

5. For a large proportion of mankind the only appeal 
that is effective at the outset of their development is the 
egoistic, practical, or vocational appeal. 

6. Industry and vocations are not ends in themselves 
but means to personal culture and happiness and to so- 
cial justice and progress. 

7. The first step to personal culture and to social inter- 
est is " joy in one's work." 

8. The first element in the development of joy in one's 
work is the recognition of the economic and aesthetic 
worth of the product produced and the social significance 
of the operations involved. 

9. The recognition of the social value of one's voca- 
tional efforts alone gives an apperceptive basis for learn- 
ing the greater lesson of the function of the state and 
the community and of the demands for civic co-opera- 
tion, personal loyalty, and social justice. 

10. The vocational, semi-vocational, or continuation 
school is the most available and promising agency soci- 
ety possesses for securing this gradual transformation 
of many of its members from selfish, egoistic individuals 
to unselfish, altruistic, social agents. 

The Problem Restated. — Edwin G. Cooley has formu- 
lated the problem in a clear and concise manner in his 
" Vocational Education in Europe." He says: 

We may sum up the problem of the continuation school as 
fourfold : 



CONTINUATION WORK 555 

i. It must strengthen and deepen the moral ideas of the youth 
and give him further moral development out of his new surround- 
ings and experiences. 

2. It must put him into social relations with the community 
and state. 

3. It must advance his vocational training, and, in connection 
with this, develop his general education. 

4. It must fill up the gaps in general training which seem likely 
to be detrimental to success in the vocational world. 

Cooley continues: 

From an ethical point of view it may be hard to justify taking 
the third idea as the centre and grouping the others about it. 
There is, however, no question but that the third is the peda- 
gogical centre of all the instruction in the continuation school; 
through it we may strengthen the other three ideals. Through 
their desire to become efficient vocationally, these boys are 
brought to see their relations to society and the state and to 
realize the advantages of a broad intellectual development. 1 

Thus, it is clear that while vocational training must, 
for the most part, be used as the lure to attract youths to 
the continuation school, such schools must go far beyond 
the vocational in their efforts. Moreover, for adults of 
eighteen years or older the vocational aspects may some- 
times be entirely incidental and the appeal may be made 
strictly through the general cultural improvement to be 
derived. 

For Whom Is Continuation Work to Be Provided. — 
With the foregoing facts, principles, and theories to 
guide, it seems clear that if continuation work in the 
United States is to be provided in a way adequate to 
meet the needs of all who should be encouraged to avail 
themselves of such opportunities, provision must be 
made for the following classes of persons: 

J E. G. Cooley, "Vocational Education in Europe," p. 86. 



556 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

i . Those boys and girls over fourteen years of age who, 
for various reasons, have completed only a portion of the 
regular elementary school course and have entered upon 
rather permanent lines of vocational work. This group 
needs a training that will fill the gaps in their earlier ele- 
mentary education, " improvement work" to fit them 
better for citizenship and for the enjoyment of health 
and leisure, and specific vocational instruction. 

2. Those who have completed the elementary school 
curriculum and possibly also a portion of the high school 
course, have engaged temporarily in various forms of 
unskilled work or vocations offering little opportunity for 
advancement, and seek to fit themselves for admission to 
college, technical schools, or more remunerative positions 
in industrial or commercial fields. It is due members of 
this class that such culture and practical work of the 
high school as is needed to fit them for their life career 
shall be given them. 

3. Those who have received a fairly ample liberal edu- 
cation but who desire to supplement their training by 
courses dealing with recently organized knowledge or by 
courses taught in ways different from the manner in which 
they formerly were presented to them. Such work may 
be pursued for culture only or for practical utility. It 
includes, for example, manual-training work for the pro- 
fessional or business man, literature or language study or 
art work for the ambitious women of leisure, and domestic 
science and art or bookkeeping or millinery work for the 
women seeking to apply the knowledge to home problems. 

4. Those immigrants who have had little or no train- 
ing in American elementary schools and who seek a 
practical knowledge of our language and our business 
and political institutions. 



CONTINUATION WORK 557 

5. Those who, whatever their previous education, de- 
sire to acquire a knowledge and training in a single 
special trade and to secure this education in the short- 
est time possible. The members of this group differ from 
those in groups one and two in that the continuation 
work sought is narrowly utilitarian and specialized. 

Thus, considering the classes of individuals for whom 
continuation work must in the nature of the case be de- 
signed, there is ample justification for making it, in the 
majority of cases, centre about vocational interests. 

Classification of Types of Continuation Work in the 
United States. — Ignoring for the present the content of 
continuation and vocational work, it is doubtless within 
the limits of fact to say there is no form of such training 
undertaken in any European country that has not had 
its counterpart in America. Indeed, there have been 
experiments undertaken in the United States that (it 
seems safe to say) are as yet unknown elsewhere. Inas- 
much, however, as it is at present extremely difficult to 
lay down hard-and-fast limits to (so-called) elementary 
education, secondary education, vocational and techni- 
cal education, and even higher education, it is a ques- 
tion of delicate judgment as to what portions of such 
work fall within the limits of a book that professes to 
deal only with high school education. 

Nevertheless, since the tendency throughout the land 
seems to be to confine the period of the undifferentiated 
elementary school to six years and to include the present 
seventh and eighth grades 1 (and in some places also the 
thirteenth and fourteenth grades, that is to say, the first 
two years of academic study beyond the present high 

1 For a detailed analysis of these tendencies see Chapter IV in vol. 
I of this series. 



558 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

school l ) in the scope of secondary education, it seems 
fitting and proper to regard all forms of vocational or 
improvement work that is provided for youths outside 
the regular traditional schools or traditional courses, and 
that is open to pupils twelve years of age or older, as 
appropriate material for discussion in this chapter. 

The complete classification of the various types of vo- 
cational and continuation work will then be as follows: 

CLASSIFICATION OF VOCATIONAL AND CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 

I. Day Schools. 

i. Preapprenticeship schools. 

2. Trade or vocational schools. 

3. Vocational curriculums in general high schools. 

(a) Short-term. 

(b) Long-term. 

4. Vocational high schools. 

(a) High schools of commerce. 

(b) Commercial high schools. 

(c) High schools of manual arts for boys. 

(d) High schools of practical arts for girls. 

(e) Industrial high schools. 
(/) Technical high schools. 
(g) Agricultural high schools. 

5. Vacation schools. 

II. Evening Schools. 

III. Part-Time Day Schools. 

1. Co-operative work. 

(a) Half-day classes. 

(b) Alternate-week (or fortnight) classes. 

(c) Weekly short-session classes (or continuation 
schools, in the popular meaning of the term). 

1 Many regular high schools now offer two years of graduate study in 
academic subjects. The State of California in particular has taken an 
active lead in such a plan and has by law specifically authorized such 
extension. 



CONTINUATION WORK 559 

(i) Within public-school buildings. 

(2) Within shops, stores, and business houses. 
2. Independent work. 
(a) Adult classes. 
(6) Special-student work. 

(c) Visiting-student work. 

(d) Supervised out-of-class work. 

(1) Independent study and special reports. 

(2) Private instruction and certification. 

(e) Extension courses. 
(/) Sunday schools. 

IV. Schools for Exceptional Children. 

1. Physically defective. 

(a) Deaf and dumb. 

(b) Blind. 

(c) Tubercular. 

(d) Deformed and crippled. 

2. Morally defective. 

(a) Incorrigibles. 

3. Mentally defective. 

(a) Morons. 

V. Miscellaneous Improvement Work. 

1. Parents and Teachers' Associations. 

2. Teachers' institutes. 

3. Teachers' study clubs. 

4. People's high schools. 

5. People's eleven-day courses. 

6. People's institutes (one or two days). 

7. High school extension work. 

Analysis of the Various Types. — A brief analysis of 
each type of vocational or improvement work mentioned 
is desirable. 

1. Preapprenticeship Schools. — These are also fre- 
quently styled general industrial or preparatory trade 
or prevocational schools. They are schools ordinarily 
open to boys and girls who have not completed the 



560 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

elementary schools and who often are under fourteen 
years of age, but whose interests, capacities, and eco- 
nomic resources demand that they shall be given an in- 
tensely practical training if they are to be retained in the 
schools with any large degree of advantage to themselves. 
These schools are, therefore, but the result of a differ- 
entiation of the elementary school at the end of the sixth 
or seventh grade. The instruction consists of English, 
mathematics, and science taught with more than usual 
reference to industry; of history, civics, physical train- 
ing, and hygiene; and of elementary work in commer- 
cial branches, manual arts, domestic arts, and general- 
trade instruction. Schools of this type — usually offering 
a two-year course — are found in several of our larger 
cities, e. g., Buffalo, Chicago, and Pittsburg, and could 
wisely be adopted in other places. 

2. Trade-Schools or Vocational Schools. — The trade- 
school, so-called, is not infrequently synonymous with 
the preapprenticeship school. It differs in theory from 
that type of school in that the dominant feature is special- 
trade rather than general-trade instruction. Pupils are 
admitted to the trade-schools at fourteen years of age but 
often before they have completed the elementary school 
curriculum. The courses are usually short — from four 
months to two years — and include a modicum of general 
knowledge applied to the special trade in question. In 
some places, however, the courses are three or four 
years in length, provide a rather general training in 
commercial, industrial, and domestic arts, and differ 
from the vocational courses in the general high school 
chiefly in the facts that not all students have completed 
the elementary curriculum, that the work is organized 
in a separate building, and that a greater portion of the 



CONTINUATION WORK 561 

school day is devoted to practice in the chosen art than 
is possible in the high school. 

Schools of this type have been established in many 
American cities and their numbers are fast multiplying. 
They take many diverse forms. Thus, for example, 
Buffalo has provided five vocational schools and gives 
instruction in the following work: cabinetmaking, car- 
pentry, pattern-making, electrical construction, machine- 
shop practice, printing, commercial subjects, and girls' 
industrial work. Buffalo has recently also "instituted a 
survey of the principal occupations for women and girls 
in Buffalo" and is making plans to establish separate vo- 
cational schools for girls. Likewise, Detroit is about to 
open several vocational schools of a similar character for 
both boys and girls. Illustrations could be multiplied. 

But not only are cities estabhshing vocational schools, 
but in several instances State trade-schools have been 
founded. Among these are the State trade-schools at 
New Britain and Bridgeport, Conn.; the New York 
Trade-School for Girls at Syracuse, N. Y.; the Girls' 
Trade-School at Boston, and the Milwaukee School of 
Trades for Boys at Milwaukee. 

The New Britain State Trade-School will furnish an 
illustration of this type of schools. Here boys are 
taught the following trades: machinist, tool-making, 
pattern-making, carpentry, cabinetmaking, draughting, 
printing and bookbinding, and plumbing. Girls are 
taught dressmaking and millinery. The only entrance 
requirements are : ability to read and write English cor- 
rectly and a minimum age limit of fourteen years. 

In this trade-school, as in many others, the guiding 
principle is to make the work real in the fullest meaning 
of the term. No undertaking is pursued merely for 



562 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

" practice," but from the very outset of the course the 
output is fashioned to fill definite orders from business 
firms. Hence each product has commercial value, the 
orders from regular customers furnishing a varied line 
of work and development in each special trade, enabling 
the producer to "learn and earn" at the same time. 
Recently t^he boys from this school have engaged in 
house-building for contractors and have constructed 
houses complete — from the excavation work to the in- 
stallation of the plumbing and electrical equipment. 
The girls supply certain firms in New York City with 
regular shipments of garments and ladies' hats. There 
can be no question but that such trade-schools or voca- 
tional schools, established by municipalities, counties, and 
States, are destined to become established in increasing 
numbers and to afford a very important kind of continu- 
ation work. Properly differentiated and wisely distrib- 
uted, it is certain that they not only will make a wide 
appeal but will serve social and economic interests in 
very advantageous ways. 

There seems, however, no very convincing reason for 
removing the control of these schools from the hands of 
the regularly constituted school authorities, as some 
would advise. No doubt the dual system works satis- 
factorily in Germany and other foreign countries, but 
there is no reason to believe that the present school ma- 
chinery in America is incapable of handling vocational 
education wisely. On the other hand, there is real dan- 
ger that a dual system of administration will lead to 
friction, duplication, waste, and possibly extravagance. 
Moreover, such an arrangement is fraught with the men- 
ace of intensifying class feelings and of mechanizing vo- 
cational work. The wisest plan of conducting all public 



CONTINUATION WORK 563 

school matters is through the agency of trained experts selected 
by a body of truly representative non-experts. Hence a 
single board of education, advised by a consultative com- 
mittee of business men, can best determine general educa- 
tional policies and raise the moneys to support them. 
Such a consultative committee, ready and willing to 
furnish the responsible school authority with data and 
suggestions respecting vocational needs, will add breadth, 
depth, and positiveness to policies that may be under- 
taken. The expert administrators, selected by the board, 
can then best be left to execute the policies decided 
upon. 

3. General High Schools. — Within the general high 
school to-day are to be found two types of vocational 
curriculums — the short-term curriculum, usually two 
years in length, and the long-term curriculum of four 
years. The former marks a very recent development; 
the latter is of several years' standing. Within each of 
these two types of curriculums from one half to three 
fourths of the subject-matter is "academic" in char- 
acter — though often presented with a vocational flavor. 
The remainder of the work is professedly vocational. 

The most commonly organized curriculums of the 
four-year type are the commercial, the manual training, 
and the domestic science and arts. Los Angeles, how- 
ever (which has probably differentiated its curriculums 
most fully of any city) , provides the following vocational 
curriculums : Commercial art, hand-wrought metal work, 
interior decorating, leather work, pottery work, general 
farmer, specialty farmer, truck gardener, landscape- 
gardener, nursery man, dairy-farmer, poultry man, farm 
mechanic, multigraph operator, adding-machine operator, 
filing clerk, billing clerk, office assistant, office manager, 



564 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

accountant, auditor, bank clerk, bookkeeper, cashier, 
stenographer, reporter, private secretary, shipping-clerk, 
receiving clerk, business manager, post-office employee, 
civil-service employee, commercial teacher, caterer's 
assistant (cooking and supplying home-made articles for 
delicatessen stores and private families) , teacher domestic 
science and art, housekeeper, waitress, dressmaker, mil- 
liner, seamstress, boat-builder, engineer (marine-gaso- 
line), merchant marine, naval architect, aquarian archi- 
tect, cataloguer of marine life, chart designer, curator of 
museums, fish commissioner, fish expert, fish propagator, 
assayer, blacksmith, cabinetmaker, chemist, architectural 
draughtsman, mechanical craftsman, foundryman, cen- 
tral station electrical work, substation electrical work, 
telephone work, electric-light work, electrician, machine- 
shop work, pattern-making, and surveying — being sixty- 
six in number. 

The above courses are offered in one or more of the 
six regular high schools of Los Angeles and are grouped 
under the following six main divisions of vocations: art 
work, agricultural occupations, commerical work, do- 
mestic science and domestic art, marine vocations, tech- 
nical and semitechnical vocations or trades. 

In each of these curriculums are found (besides the 
major subject and English) from two to four years' 
work in history, from one to four years' work in mathe- 
matics, together with a minimum amount of work in 
music, physical education, and oral expression. 

The principle of differentiation revealed here is being 
widely accepted, and vocational curriculums in the 
general high school are multiplying rapidly. There is 
no reason to doubt that for the smaller community this 
mode of providing vocational or continuation work is 



I 
CONTINUATION WORK 565 

one of the best and most feasible and that the practice 
will continue. 

The short-term vocational curriculum differs from the 
four-year curriculum chiefly in that the subject-matter is 
more completely vocational, thus allowing the individual 
pursuing it to secure quickly the practical training he 
seeks and to enter upon his vocational career at an early 
date. Among the cities offering curriculums of this 
type are Kansas City, Kans.; Pittsburg, Pa.; South 
Bend, Ind., and Chicago, 111. — the latter city providing 
ten distinct two-year curriculums of a vocational char- 
acter. 

The plan here revealed possesses decided merits. 
With some possible modifications, it is adapted to every 
high school in the land in which vocational courses of any 
character are offered. The scheme does not signify a 
four-year course with the last two years omitted, but it 
permits such a reorganization of the vocational work 
offered as to provide for intensification and relative com- 
pleteness at the end of a two-year period. Continuation 
work of this kind differs less in character than in mode 
of organization from the work provided in the so-called 
vocational schools already discussed. Here the instruc- 
tion is given in the regular high school, and ordinarily 
is open to none excepting those who have completed the 
elementary schools. By making the admission require- 
ments as liberal here as in the vocational schools, smaller 
communities can provide this form of continuation 
work as readily as larger communities. The short-term 
courses are worthy of encouragement. 

4. Special High Schools. — Special vocational high 
schools are practicable only in cities of larger size, wherein 
the demands for extensive specialized work in particu- 



566 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

lar fields come from a considerable body of candidates. 
Within these schools the principle of differentiation of 
work of an advanced secondary kind is carried to its 
logical end. In form the special school is not different 
from the special or differentiated courses within the sin- 
gle general high school, but in spirit and method there is 
a decided unlikeness. These schools foster a unity of 
purpose and a solidarity of interest that are clear-cut, 
definite, and articulated. The methods, too, are the 
methods of practical education — all subjects being pre- 
sented with reference solely to their application. They 
seek to do for the youths who have superior ability in 
particular lines or who enjoy unusual economic and edu- 
cational advantages what the vocational schools seek to 
do for the less fortunate boy or girl. 

There are as many as seven distinct subdivisions of 
this type of special high schools: 

(a) The High School of Commerce aims to give a 
broad knowledge of business affairs and processes, and, 
in particular, a specialized training in connection with 
the problems of trade, transportation, and finance. It 
seeks to fit young men to take their places among the 
directive agencies of the business world. Such schools 
have arisen out of the demands of the larger commercial 
interests of the country and are found only in cities of 
considerable size, as, for example, in New York, Boston, 
Philadelphia. In such cities they are desirable and 
feasible. 

(b) The Commercial High School aims chiefly to fit 
boys and girls for subordinate positions in offices, stores, 
and business houses. It takes the place of the private 
" commercial college" or the "commercial course" in 
the general high schools. 






CONTINUATION WORK 567 

(c) The High School of Manual Arts (boys) centres its 
activities about work in drawing and manual training. 
It seeks to train young men for positions as draughts- 
men, foremen, engineers, architects, and managers of 
manufacturing establishments, but presupposes a sup- 
plementary period of apprenticeship after leaving the 
school. Schools of this type are desirable in all large 
industrial centres. 

(d) The High School of Practical Arts (girls) is not 
infrequently given other names, as, for example, high 
school of domestic arts, vocational high school for 
girls, and girls' technical high school. Within these 
schools two lines of work run parallel and are interwoven 
in each girl's curriculum — one seeking to give a practical 
training that will enable her to earn a respectable liveli- 
hood for the uncertain period preceding her marriage 
and the other seeking to give such knowledge and train- 
ing as will fit her for the higher calling of home maker, 
motherhood, and citizenship. Boston, New York, and 
some other cities provide schools of this type. In several 
other cities the same purpose is sought in schools of other 
names — particularly in technical high schools. 

(e) The Industrial High School. The first school of 
this kind to be established in the United States is the 
Industrial High School of Columbus, Ga., which was 
opened in 1906. This school provides a three-year cur- 
riculum and articulates with a seven-year grammar- 
school course. In addition to the usual academic work 
in English, mathematics, history, and science, each pupil 
is required to pursue one of five distinct trade courses. 
These are: (1) home economics, (2) dressmaking and 
millinery, (3) mechanic arts, (4) textile arts, and (5) 
business training. 



568 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

A quotation from an official bulletin makes clear the 
character of this school : 

"The academic work is related as closely as possible 
to the trade courses. For instance, the science teacher 
co-operates with the specialist in charge of the textile 
department in matters of dyeing. The chemistry course, 
so far as the pupils in this department are concerned, has 
special reference to the work of that department; while 
in the domestic-science department the chemistry has 
special reference to the analysis of foods and their nu- 
tritive values. In the English department pupils are 
required to take topics from their trade courses as sub- 
jects for themes, and the special teachers of the trade 
courses correct the papers with reference to facts, while 
the head of the English department criticises and grades 
them with reference to their form and literary value. 
The problems in mathematics used in the classroom grow 
largely out of the work of the shops. And the history 
teacher presents his subject especially from the industrial 
point of view." 1 

One half of each day in this school is devoted to in- 
dustrial work and the other half to academic studies. 
Visits to mills, factories, and machine-shops are fre- 
quent. 

As in the case of practical-arts work for girls, a num- 
ber of cities have, since 1906, provided industrial training 
in specialized schools but frequently have given to such 
institutions the name technical schools. Whether vo- 
cational training is furnished in a high school specialized 
to include but one line of study or in schools organized 
into several co-ordinate divisions is a matter of little 

1 "Industrial Education in Columbus, Ga.," U. S. Bureau of Educa- 
tion, Bulletin 25, p. 16. 



CONTINUATION WORK 569 

significance and can best be left to the judgment of the 
local authorities. 

(/) The Technical High School includes under one 
roof the work that in other cities is frequently organized 
in manual-arts schools, commerical schools, and often- 
times, too, practical-arts schools. Schools of this type 
have recently been established in Detroit, Cleveland, 
Pittsburg, and other cities and give promise of much 
further extension. 

(g) Agricultural High Schools seek to serve rural boys 
and girls in the same manner that the other types of 
vocational high school serve the urban resident. The 
aim is to fit for a life of contentment and efficiency on 
the farms. Such schools include, usually, academic sub- 
jects,, domestic science and art, manual training, farm 
mechanics, bookkeeping and other commercial education 
relatable to farm processes, farm beautifying, rural soci- 
ology, and other technical branches. Schools of this type 
are authorized by law in several States and in certain sec- 
tions of the United States many have been established. 
In some instances they are organized as State schools, e. g., 
the State School of Agriculture at Alfred, N. Y., and the 
Murray State School, Oklahoma; in many instances they 
are county schools, e. g., the Milwaukee (Wis.) School of 
Agriculture and the Menominee County (Mich.) School 
of Agriculture. 

It seems clear that wherever the unit of organization 
is sufficiently populous to make the specialized high 
school economically justifiable, and wherever a strong vo- 
cational demand is felt for a distinct school of this kind, 
this way of organizing and administering vocational ed- 
ucation possesses many advantages. Among these are 
the feeling of solidarity and pride in work on the part 



570 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

of the students, the possibility of employing a freer spirit 
in discipline than in the cosmopolitan schools, economy 
of equipment, longer school periods and a longer school 
day, and the closer articulation of shop and school. 

5. Vacation Schools have much to recommend them 
to public consideration, and many communities are pro- 
viding for them. Omitting from consideration vacation 
schools designed for very young children (though even 
these are in a certain sense continuation schools, since 
they depart in a notable way from the traditional ele- 
mentary school), it seems plausible to assert that the 
schools of this type may be made to yield the following 
advantages: First, they permit the healthy, capable, and 
ambitious high school pupil to shorten his four-year 
course very materially; secondly, they enable the high 
school student who for one reason or another has failed 
to pass a portion of his work the previous year to regain 
his ranking and to proceed with his class ; thirdly, it per- 
mits students who are seeking to acquire a vocational 
training within a limited period of time to complete a 
definite portion earlier than they otherwise would be 
able. Moreover, it furnishes a chance for a student to 
do extra work in the subjects in which he wishes to 
specialize. 

There is no question but that the vacation school fur- 
nishes a form of continuation work that is capable of 
filling an important educational and social service. It 
is feasible to conduct such a school in almost any com- 
munity in which the demand is made articulate. De- 
troit, Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Pittsburg, and 
many other cities provide schools of this type, and it 
seems probable the movement will be rapidly extended. 
Wherever the regular school year extends over ten 



CONTINUATION WORK 571 

months the vacation school must, perforce, be shortened 
below a term of twelve weeks. Where this is done 
economy of administration would suggest, doubtless, that 
the number of courses elected by any individual should 
be reduced to two or three, that class periods should be 
correspondingly lengthened, and that thus the work 
carried in any course in the summer should be made 
equivalent to the same course during the regular quarter 
or semester. By confining the work to the morning and 
to the hours of early afternoon, and by providing op- 
portunities for study within the school building, ample 
time for rest and recreation is still allowed later in the 
day. An incidental result of the vacation school is the 
impulse given to the all-year schools. If developed, this 
plan of organization will permit four terms of eleven or 
twelve weeks each, and hence will provide an additional 
means for securing flexibility. 

Evening Schools. — The second large division of 
schools that deal with continuation work consists of the 
evening schools. Established now in nearly every large 
city and town, these schools seek to provide an academic 
and a vocational training in all lines of work for which 
there is a well-expressed request. Organized in courses 
that are given three evenings per week (usually Monday, 
Wednesday, and Friday) and in courses that meet but 
twice per week (Tuesday and Thursday), continuation 
work (where thus given) is made available for all who 
possess the physical strength, intellectual alertness, and 
moral stamina to seek it. Although tens of thousands 
of boys and girls and men and women do attend evening 
continuation schools, the fatigue of strenuous day labor 
unfits many times that number for pursuing any courses 
that demand concentration, alert thinking, or physical 



572 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

effort. Hence it is clear that the evening continuation 
school, as the chief agency for bettering the intellectual, 
vocational, and social welfare of the classes who toil, is 
destined to prove an inadequate agency. As a volun- 
tary school it doubtless can serve a most useful purpose; 
but as a means of securing compulsory continuation 
schooling it is ill adapted. 

Other difficulties to the adequate administration of 
evening continuation schools lie in the inequality of at- 
tainments among those who do attend, the insufficiency 
of well-trained teachers, and suitable text-books. Nev- 
ertheless, these are but temporary administrative prob- 
lems and doubtless will gradually be solved in satisfac- 
tory ways. 

It is important to note that, despite the obstacles that 
have stood in the course of the full realization of the 
ideals of this type of school, it has nevertheless proved 
itself capable of real and wide-spread service and has 
been the agency for providing continuation work in 
manifold ways. 

Merely to list a few of the courses of instruction given 
in various schools to-day is to suggest the illimitable 
range of possibilities that inhere in schools organized 
after this type. The list includes the various academic 
subjects, semiacademic courses in manual training and 
domestic science and art, commercial work of many 
kinds, plumbing, laundering, telegraphy, telegraph and 
telephone construction, bookbinding, printing, electrical 
work, mining processes, marine engineering, boat-build- 
ing, gas-engines, automobile building, chauffeuring, avia- 
tion, millinery, dressmaking, cigar making, nursing, do- 
mestic service, public service, office practice, secretarial 
work, etc., etc. Wherever the population of the com- 



CONTINUATION WORK 573 

munity contains a large proportion of foreign-born citi- 
zens, courses in spoken and written English are also com- 
mon and are, in many cases at least, eagerly pursued. 

Thus it is that the evening school affords an important 
means of providing continuation work for many classes 
of persons. It constitutes, moreover, a form of continu- 
ation work that can be carried on in practically every 
high school in the land. Wisdom, of course, will dictate 
that futile efforts shall not be encouraged. As in all 
other forms of education, local demands must in large 
measure determine the scope, intensiveness, and char- 
acter of the work provided. 

Nevertheless, however urgent the needs in any given 
community, the school will not organize itself. Its in- 
auguration and perpetuation will depend on the efforts of 
some leader. Inarticulate interests must be made artic- 
ulate, incentives to attendance must be presented, and 
the work must be organized and continued in a vital, 
gripping manner. Progressive and ambitious school- 
men should recognize their opportunities to render 
greater educational service by studying local situations 
and, if conditions warrant, organizing evening continua- 
tion work of appropriate kinds. 

Part-Time Day Schools. — A third very promising mode 
of administering continuation work is through part-time 
instruction. Wherever such provision is made the im- 
pelling thought is that students shall be permitted to 
attend school in the daytime (rather than at night) and 
shall not entirely interrupt their regular occupations. 
The work falls into two main divisions, namely, co- 
operative work and independent work, and each of 
these divisions in turn may be subdivided into several 
distinct minor forms. 



574 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

By Co-operative continuation work is meant the shar- 
ing of the responsibility and the burden of support by 
both the State and the business firm in which the stu- 
dent is employed. The principle that serves as a jus- 
tification for this arrangement is that the employer is 
directly benefited by the increased training given to his 
employees as fully as is the State. This improvement 
is found in increased intellectual power, deepened sense 
of moral responsibility, and enhanced technical skill. On 
the other hand, the State derives benefit through the 
promise of more enlightened citizenship and the economic 
independence on the part of its members. 

Co-operative continuation work is, for the most part, 
carried on under three main forms — namely, in half-day 
classes, in alternate-week classes, and in weekly short- 
session classes. The last form is not infrequently styled 
"continuation work," pure and simple, the term here 
being used in its narrowest meaning. 

In Half-day continuation work students spend one 
half of each school day in the school pursuing such work 
as they may elect. The other half day is employed in 
shop, store, or other place of business in which they may 
be engaged. Obviously, wherever an arrangement of this 
sort is made the special interests of the employer require 
that at least a portion of the school work shall bear some- 
what closely upon the technical duties devolving upon 
the youth in the place of business. The possibilities of 
this form of schooling are not, however, exhausted here. 
Many forms of business suffer no great inconvenience if 
the operations of the work are not continuous through- 
out the entire day. Moreover, among many business 
firms a boy's or a girl's services are desired but part of a 
day, readily enabling the individual, therefore, to devote 



CONTINUATION WORK 575 

the other half to school work. Since one of the secrets 
of keeping young men and women a longer period in the 
schools is to provide ways and means "to earn and 
learn" at the same time, and to engage in greater social 
and physical activities, it devolves upon the adminis- 
trators of our schools to set such machinery in operation 
as will increase the interest in half-day schools. 

Alternate-Week Schools are much more common than 
half-day schools but perhaps give less promise of suc- 
cessful extension. The core for their organization is 
found in industrial interests. Schools of this kind con- 
template the organization of the continuation-school 
students into two groups — one group to devote its entire 
attention and efforts for a certain definite period (usu- 
ally a week or a fortnight) to the theoretical instruction 
of the particular trade, the second group to be engaged, 
meanwhile, in applying the theoretical knowledge (ac- 
quired the previous week in the school) in the actual 
work of shop or factory. At the end of the given period 
the two groups exchange places, each group thereby al- 
ternately receiving the benefits of theoretical and prac- 
tical training. 

Schools of this type are found in Fitchburg, Mass.; 
Cincinnati, O.; Kalamazoo, Mich., and several other 
cities. In no case is the instruction confined solely to 
technical trade knowledge, but includes English adapted 
to the needs of the future artisan, shop mathematics, 
industrial geography, industrial and commercial history, 
mechanical drawing applied to immediate interests, fun- 
damental processes of physics and chemistry so far as 
they relate to the vocation in hand, shop practice and 
problems, and elemental topics in civics and in hygiene. 

As in the case of half-day classes, the form of part- 



576 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

time training considered here offers great possibilities 
for incorporation into the school system of every indus- 
trial community, but just as in the case of half-day 
classes the successful organization and administration of 
them depend to a large degree upon the strength, fore- 
sight, and tact of the superintendent or other school 
administrator in charge. For the time being only the 
voluntary co-operation of employees can be expected; 
but even this will not be secured in large measure unless 
the plan and purposes are clearly revealed to them and 
the mutual advantages are pointed out. In most cases, 
therefore, the initiative must come from the public- 
school officials. 

The type of part-time co-operative school that offers 
the most promise of all, that is, seemingly, easiest of es- 
tablishment and of administration, and that has, up to 
date, made the strongest appeal to educators and to lay- 
men is the Weekly short-session class, or the continua- 
tion school in the popular meaning of the term. These 
schools are designed to receive young men and women 
for a few hours per week and to give them theoretical 
instruction in the field of their daily occupations. But 
in order to buttress this theoretical special knowledge 
the instruction most commonly seeks to teach also the 
fundamental principles and processes upon which the 
special art depends and to give a practical training in 
instrumental subjects, such as English, arithmetic, spell- 
ing, writing, and drawing. In many instances some at- 
tention is given to hygiene, civics, ethical principles, 
gymnastics, folk dancing, swimming, and the conventions 
incident to the special vocation. 

The time allotted to these short-session classes varies 
from two hours per week to ten or twelve hours. Most 



CONTINUATION WORK 577 

frequently the class meets one half day per week for a 
period of six months or longer. Thus, for example, in 
Kansas City, Kans., the afternoon sessions of this type 
of school extend from 2.30 to 5.30 o'clock. In Detroit, 
Mich., the forenoon sessions extend from 7 o'clock to 11 
for girls in factories, and from 8 to 12 o'clock for girls in 
stores; the afternoon sessions for young men extend from 
1 to 5.30 o'clock. In both cities all classes meet weekly. 

It is, of course, highly essential to students and em- 
ployers alike that any continuation work that is under- 
taken shall be carried forward sufficiently long and suffi- 
ciently regularly to yield real advantages to both. To 
insure this prolonged effort, Detroit, for example, admits 
no student to this type of continuation classes until a 
contract has been executed by the student, the employer, 
and the agent of the school. By this contract the em- 
ployer agrees to permit his employees to attend the con- 
tinuation school one half day per week throughout a 
period of two years, and the student agrees to "attend 
the school regularly and promptly the full time and to 
perform all work to be done both in and out of the school 
to the best of his ability." The ideal plan also contem- 
plates that the employer shall not deduct from the wage 
of his employees because of their attendance on the 
school, inasmuch as such instruction conduces to his own 
(direct) advantage. 

In all schools of this kind the work must, in the nature 
of the case, be flexible. To quote from the Detroit an- 
nouncement: " It is not the aim to maintain hard and 
fast courses of study, but rather to give the student what 
he needs to know next, in order that his efficiency may 
increase as rapidly as possible." 

That the results of the short-session continuation 



578 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

school are thoroughly satisfactory (if the work is well 
conducted) can be gathered from excerpts from a recent 
bulletin issued by the Board of Education of Detroit: 
" Progress has been marked from the very first and 
employers are unanimous in their opinion that the work 
is a paying investment. The students have shown 
great earnestness and sincerity of purpose, voluntarily 
doing considerable study and preparation outside of 
shop and class hours. The general comment of super- 
intendents and foremen is that the boys are neater in 
their personal habits and dress, show keener interest in 
their work, and more loyalty to the firm. ,, 

An essential feature of all types of continuation in- 
struction is " follow-up work." Through visits to the 
homes and shops continuation school administrators 
should seek to become familiar with the home and 
working conditions of their charges and to help each 
one to solve the particular problems that surround him. 
In addition, vocational bureaus should be maintained 
and students aided in planning their careers and in se- 
curing suitable positions. 

Obviously, the teachers in continuation schools must 
be men and women who are acquainted with the prac- 
tical side of industry as well as with the theoretical 
principles underlying it. In the nature of the case it 
is not easy as yet to secure many teachers who are thus 
adequately fitted for the work. No doubt practical 
shopmen who have had a fair degree of liberal culture 
will render the best service under existing conditions. 
But there is imperative need for the development of 
training schools that shall prepare teachers for these 
newer types of work. 

In addition to the short-session continuation work 



CONTINUATION WORK 579 

held within public-school buildings, there is need for sim- 
ilar schools that shall be conducted within the shops or 
stores or other places of business themselves. For some 
time past private undertakings of this kind have been 
instituted by employers for their employees, but the 
newer ideal contemplates the incorporation of this work 
in the public-school system. Under this arrangement 
the factory or store is, as heretofore, to furnish the school- 
room and the equipment, but, in place of purely technical 
instruction given by some of the more experienced em- 
ployees of the plant itself, the instruction is to include 
both general and trade knowledge and is to be presented 
by trained public-school teachers who visit the places of 
business for that purpose. Where the consent of the 
employer can readily be obtained, work of this kind can 
doubtless best be given at stated times within the work- 
ing day. Where employees are more or less indifferent 
to the obligations, the work can best be conducted dur- 
ing the hour of noon intermission. This latter alterna- 
tive must, however, be but a temporary experiment to 
demonstrate to proprietor and employees the mutual 
advantages to be derived from continuation work of 
the kind. 

Obviously, continuation work conducted in the shop 
or store has the doubtful advantage of reducing the 
time necessary to receive the instruction. It also will 
often save car-fare for many persons to and from the 
school building. It is a question, though, if the change 
in environment secured by conducting classes in other 
places than the industrial centre itself may not prove a 
stimulus that is educationally and economically ad- 
vantageous. As a means, however, of interesting em- 
ployers in the operation of the other types of co-opera- 



580 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tive continuation work, the factory or store school has 
its values. 

Of the Independent or non-cooperative part-time con- 
tinuation schools little has as yet been heard. Nev- 
ertheless, they are rich in possibilities for extending the 
scope and advantages of the public schools. Among the 
various forms which continuation work of this kind 
takes are adult classes in the regular and evening schools. 
The object of such organizations is to enable adults who 
desire to take advantage of the opportunities offered by 
the public schools to do so without interfering with the 
instruction of younger people in the schools, and without 
subjecting themselves to their unthinking criticisms. 
Adult classes may be organized to give education purely 
in the interest of liberal culture and enjoyment, or for 
the sake of application in the workaday routine of the 
individual receiving it. Thus, for example, the Kansas 
City, Kans., afternoon and evening schools are organized 
(among other purposes) " to offer opportunities for adults 
who may desire to carry on some definite and systematic 
educational work," and the following subjects are of- 
fered: arithmetic, English grammar, penmanship, short- 
hand, spelling, elementary English, advanced English, 
physical training, reading (for persons desiring to learn 
the English language), science of government, book- 
keeping, typewriting, cooking, sewing, china painting, 
mechanic arts, and mechanical drawing. If an articu- 
late demand should be made for their inclusion, there is 
no logical reason why any other subjects regularly found 
in the programme of studies should not be offered to 
adults on equal conditions with the above. In fact, the 
following courses are offered in some parts of the coun- 
try: history, music (including harmony, counterpoint, 



CONTINUATION WORK 581 

and the history of music), history of art, foreign lan- 
guages, special courses in science, gymnastics, and swim- 
ming. In the future, therefore, adult classes in the high 
schools must be made a permanent feature of all sys- 
tems, for one of the clearest lessons continuation work is 
impressing is that the schools are organized in the inter- 
est of all members of society, provided they choose to 
take advantage of their opportunities. 

Still another form of part-time provision is the opening 
of the regular high school courses to the special student. 
This plan not only permits but encourages the ambitious 
young man or woman whose main interests lie in fields 
outside the school, or whose state of health will not per- 
mit carrying the full allotment of work in the school, to 
elect a single course (if desired) and to be exempt from 
all regular school discipline. This plan does not require 
the toleration of the drone, the hopelessly incompetent, 
or the lawless; it merely tempers the breeze to the shorn 
lamb. While it is true nearly every high school in the 
past has had its irregular or special students, the fact is 
nevertheless true that all courses have been made unrea- 
sonably difficult rather than guardedly easy of entrance 
to the special student. 

Visiting-Student Work differs little from work per- 
mitted to the special student. The latter pursues the 
courses he elects and receives credit toward graduation 
when satisfactorily completing them. Within the par- 
ticular course elected the special student is held amen- 
able to the requirements exacted of all others. The 
auditor or visiting student attends the course with no 
thought of credit and does as much or as little inde- 
pendent study as he sees fit. His object in attending 
classes is to listen to the discussions and to gain a general 
appreciation of the subject treated. 



582 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Supervised Out-of-Class Work has as yet received 
little attention by the high schools. There are, how- 
ever, two feasible ways of providing this kind of con- 
struction work. One is through private study and 
special reports made directly to the teacher in charge 
at regular, stated intervals. The other allows high 
school credit for work done outside the school provided 
it be certified to by some responsible person. In the 
first case supervision is frequent and direct; in the second 
case it is at longer intervals and indirect. Both plans 
have for their object the fostering of continuation work 
— the one seeking to encourage the youth who cannot 
attend school at all to continue systematic study by 
himself; the other seeking to stimulate the regular stu- 
dent who has aptitudes and interests not cultivated in 
the school to pursue those interests under private tui- 
tion and to be accorded high school credit therefor. 
Among the subjects thus recognized should be the study 
of music, fine arts, and commercial branches and ac- 
tivities carried forward at home or in business. Among 
the latter may be included domestic science and art 
work, agricultural and horticultural work, and similar 
occupations when regularly and satisfactorily performed. 

Sunday Schools. — A last form of continuation work 
to be mentioned under this category is that provided in 
Sunday schools. Little advantage has so far been taken 
of the possibilities of this type of school. Whatever be 
one's religious beliefs and whatever be one's attitude 
toward the appropriate observance of the Sabbath, there 
is no gainsaying the fact that the spirit of a day of rest 
implies not wasteful idleness but wholesome activities 
tending to strengthen the body through change of occu- 
pation. Hence, by opening the high school on Sundays 



CONTINUATION WORK 583 

to such as are unable to pursue work at other times, 
and by making the appeal varied and strong, true bene- 
fits may be rendered to many types of people who would 
otherwise not only not receive them at all but in many 
cases (it must be believed) would employ the day in ac- 
quiring vicious knowledge and habits. Certainly there 
can be no more serious objection to Sunday lectures 
in the high school than in the art gallery or museum, 
nor to pursuing class work quietly than to playing base- 
ball noisily. 

Continuation Schools for Exceptional Children. — 
Schools of this kind fall under three classifications, viz., 
those for the physically, the morally, and the mentally 
defective. In the past such schools (where organized) 
have rarely provided more than elementary instruction. 
The new conception of the function of public education 
demands, however, that (if ability will permit) the edu- 
cation of these unfortunate classes shall not terminate 
here. Hence it is that continuation work particularly 
adapted to the special needs of each type of defectives 
finds co-ordinate place in any complete scheme of public 
schools. 

For the deaf and dumb, the blind, and the deformed 
and crippled children special equipment, specially trained 
teachers, and specially outlined vocational material are 
obviously absolutely essential to any adequate prosecu- 
tion of the work. For the tubercular children and for 
other children of delicate health the most promising 
agency of benefit is the open-air schools. For the in- 
corrigibles the current psychological, sociological, and 
economic theory is that the inhibition of antisocial ten- 
dencies can best be secured through the substitution of 
counteracting interests and the habituation to beneficent 



584 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

actions. Hence the demand arises for the isolation of the 
individuals of this type in classes in which much training 
in social responsibility may be secured and in which 
appeals may be made in unusual ways. For the treat- 
ment of the higher types of mental defectives much the 
same principles and policies must be adopted as in the 
case of the incorrigibles. Hence, continuation work of 
appropriate kinds can alone provide a schooling that 
will prove of much personal and social benefit to mem- 
bers of these exceptional classes. In the nature of the 
case much of this instruction must centre about motor 
interests, and therefore an unusual proportion of the 
material must consist of plays, games, and specific vo- 
cational knowledge. 

Improvement of Teacher. — Two forms of continua- 
tion work relating primarily to the improvement of 
teachers in service may be mentioned. These are 
Teachers' Study Clubs and Teachers' Institutes. A third 
form in which the continued development of the teach- 
ers constitutes a joint object with the instruction of 
the parents is the Teachers' and Parents' Associations. 
In each of these the work is usually conducted within 
the public-school buildings and, in part at least, at public 
expense. It may, therefore, appropriately be styled con- 
tinuation work. Within each association topics are con- 
sidered that have for their object the vocational im- 
provement of teachers or the general enlightenment of 
parents. The work is, therefore, distinctively of an edu- 
cational character and is entitled to a conspicuous place 
in any scheme of public schools. 

People's Schools. — Three other types of continuation 
work that may be mentioned, but that as yet have re- 
ceived little attention, are the People's High Schools, 



CONTINUATION WORK 585 

the People's "Eleven-day Courses" and the People's 
Institutes. The first of these contemplates the or- 
ganization of systematic high school instruction for 
adults, such schools to be operated during the three, four, 
five, or six months of winter, and to provide those who 
wish to attend them with the means of securing a con- 
tinuous high school course of training during the period 
in which they are open. This type of school is in very 
successful operation in Denmark and other northern 
European countries and is spreading to other parts of 
Europe. For the most part, the schools are designed for 
young men and women eighteen years of age or older 
whose early education has been interrupted or neglected 
and whose more mature ambitions lead them to seek to 
improve their general education. To quote from Sadler : 
"The Danish schools of this type have in an unwonted 
degree fostered the love of country, given a thirst for 
knowledge, imparted to industry ingenuity and success, 
and made life in many simple homes fuller of nobler in- 
terests and higher cares. " 1 This type of school offers 
great promise for American educators. It here (as in 
Denmark) can be made to serve the residents of rural 
communities in a most wholesome and beneficial manner. 
People's " eleven-day courses" constitute a second 
form of continuation work for adults that has received 
its most complete testing in Denmark but that is not 
entirely untried in America. Under this form (as con- 
ducted in Denmark) new courses of instruction in various 
lines of practical knowledge are begun in certain schools 
on the first and third Tuesdays of each month and ex- 
tend for eleven days. Not infrequently husbands and 
wives attend these schools together for a fortnight or 

1 Sadler, "Continuation Schools," p. 483. 



586 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

more at a time, and much good is accomplished in dis- 
seminating scientific knowledge and scientific ways of 
carrying on vocational occupations. Just as with the 
people's high schools, the "eleven-day courses" or some 
courses of similar form suggest enormous possibilities for 
America. 

A modified type of the " eleven-day courses" is the 
people's institute. This seeks to do in a limited way 
and by means of a school lasting though two or three 
days what other types of schools just mentioned seek 
to accomplish (in a larger way) during a longer period of 
time. Thus, for example, at Bangor, Mich., people's 
institutes are held once or twice per year in connection 
with the agricultural courses in the high school. At 
these institutes (at which are gathered farmers and their 
wives as well as the students in the agricultural course 
in the high school) addresses are given by agricultural 
college men or others; visits of inspection are made to 
adjoining farms, stables, shops, and stores; illustrative 
materials are studied; discussions are carried on; and, 
finally, the leader in charge summarizes the nndings^and 
points out the practical lessons. Among the features 
of these institutes are stock judging, corn judging, soil- 
fertility tests, and similar activities. Like the people's 
high school and the people's " eleven-day courses," the 
people's institute constitutes a feasible and desirable 
mode of providing continuation work for rural communi- 
ties. Such institutes can be multiplied with great ad- 
vantage to society. 

Extension Courses. — Finally one further mode of pro- 
viding continuation work may be considered. This is 
through high school extension courses. This plan of 
making the school serve a wider educational function is 



CONTINUATION WORK 587 

already in extensive operation throughout many sections 
of the country. By means of semipopular lectures on 
vocational, semivocational, and liberalizing topics; by 
means of moving pictures, stereopticon entertainments, 
dramatics, and musicales; and by means of school exhibi- 
tions, school contests, and meetings for open discussion, a 
constituency is being reached by the high school that 
is in pote equal to the population of the school district. 
Indeed, the expenditure of public moneys for the oper- 
ation of this kind of continuation work has, in many 
places, aggregated tens of thousands of dollars annually. 
Nor seemingly is there any wiser or more legitimate form 
of expenditure of public-school funds. 

Where courses of these kinds are provided they usually 
are given in the evening, but there is no valid reason why 
they should not be given Saturday and Sunday after- 
noons and on holidays, provided only an audience can 
be secured at those times. High school extension work 
of this kind has barely entered the field of possibilities. 
It can advantageously be developed in various ways. 

Continuation work in America, therefore, has already 
been instituted in many places and. in many diverse 
forms. The movement must continue. If the public 
schools are, indeed, to be truly public schools, the scope 
of their work must expand as knowledge and processes 
increase and as society becomes more complex. More- 
over, the ideal requires that an increased flexibility shall 
be introduced in all forms of administration and that 
the schools shall not be conducted to give training to in- 
dividuals with certain interests only or to those who are 
included within certain arbitrarily chosen age limits. 

What particular form the continuation work shall take 



588 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

in any particular place can best be left to local condi- 
tions to determine. The ideal must be, however, to pro- 
vide it in such ways and in such manner as shall appeal 
to all types of citizens. To accomplish this, undoubtedly 
several of the different agencies above must be employed 
in each community. 

Administration. — Whether continuation work shall be 
administered as a separate and distinct type of public- 
school work and be controlled by a body of administra- 
tors other than the administrators of the existing regular 
schools is, after all, of little significance. The essential 
thing is in some way to secure continuation work for all. 
The only argument against the dual form of administra- 
tion that is of any importance is that class distinctions 
will be formed in the schools, and hence in society, if the 
dual form is perpetuated. If the danger were realizable 
it would be critical, but it is not realizable. Class and 
group and community interests will always exist, but 
providing for these under separate roofs is no whit differ- 
ent in principle than providing for them under the 
same roof. A public school will ultimately serve social 
needs or it will be abolished. If the separate continua- 
tion school shall be found to serve social needs best, that 
will be the permanent form. 

But throughout this chapter the position has been held 
that there is no valid reason why continuation work shall 
not be administered as a co-ordinate, organic part of our 
present system of schools. The true scope of the high 
school has been considered as extending over the entire 
period of adolescence and including all forms of work 
provided for it. This conception requires, therefore, 
that continuation work, i. e., work different from work as 
at present organized and administered, must begin with 






CONTINUATION WORK 589 

the seventh grade and be carried through to an unde- 
fined limit of age and attainment. 

Continuation work considers the welfare of the State 
and of civil society as fully as it considers the individual. 
Hence, ways and means must be provided for giving 
continuation training to all classes of youths. This fact 
makes incumbent on society the establishment of a much 
longer period of compulsory school attendance. Some 
States have already enacted laws requiring boys and 
girls to be in school until sixteen years of age unless 
they have secured permanent positions. The law is 
inadequate. Compulsory continuation work for all dur- 
ing a period of four or five hours per week for at least 
two years must be the legal requirement. Morality, 
business, government, and culture alike demand this 
continued training. 

Obstacles. — The greatest obstacles to the further de- 
velopment of continuation work at the present time are 
two: first, the lack of money, and, secondly, the lack of 
adequately prepared teachers. Public education is an 
affair of the State or nation, not of the local community 
alone. Hence, it is both essential and proper that the 
burdens of the schools shall be borne, in part at least, by 
the State and the United States. To this end friends of 
public education everywhere, and particularly the friends 
of continuation work, must co-operate in the effort to 
secure national and State aid for public education. With 
adequate financial means available, the second obstacle 
— that of securing qualified teachers — will disappear; 
for, whenever the position of teachers is made as at- 
tractive as other professions and callings, there will be 
available teachers. 

To summarize, it is clear that at the present time there 



590 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

is a complete reversal of attitude on the part of school 
administrators respecting the purpose, plan, and admin- 
istration of public education. Formerly the position 
most frequently taken was: Here is a school and a cur- 
riculum organized alike for all. It is the privilege of all 
to enter it and remain a definite period of time, but uni- 
formity must be the guiding principle of administration. 
To-day the ideal is to give every boy and girl the educa- 
tion that he or she needs. Post-elementary education in 
particular calls for differentiation of schools and school 
work. The response to this call is the development of 
the continuation school. Such schools already have 
proved themselves socially expedient, administratively 
feasible, politically advantageous, and economically prof- 
itable. Investigations, too, prove conclusively that, to 
be of most service, continuation work, as the term is here 
used, must begin with early adolescence and continue 
into mature adulthood. This is the work that, in Amer- 
ica, falls primarily within the range of secondary educa- 
tion. It is, therefore, appropriate to regard all forms of 
it as added functions of the high school. Moreover, if 
continuation work is to be adequate to meet the urgent 
demands of business, the State, and civil society, it must 
be obligatory on all and must gradually lead out from 
the egoistic vocational interests of individuals to higher 
social, civic, and moral interests. Hence, continuation 
work in the schools must of necessity relate itself to 
allied social questions and to social agencies other than 
the school which seek the general welfare of human 
beings. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
SOCIALIZING FUNCTION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY 

Florence M. Hopkins 

LIBRARIAN, CENTRAL SCHOOL, DETROIT, MICH. 

Growing Conception of the Function of the Library. — 

The marked growth of the high school library in the past 
decade reveals the fact that we are facing the rising tide 
of its place and influence in high school life and educa- 
tion. The attention given to it in conventions and jour- 
nals of late years is another evidence of the fact that 
its value is being appreciated and its development stud- 
ied. According to the report of the Bureau of Educa- 
tion, there were 11,734 public and private high school 
libraries in the United States in 191 2, representing nearly 
9,000,000 volumes. The first step, therefore, that of 
supplying books for definite reference work, has been 
taken. The need of supplying books in duplicate for 
large classes is also generally conceded. The seeking of 
the library by the pupil, when he is in need of infor- 
mation, is an established habit; but the seeking of the 
pupil by the library is a field just beginning to be de- 
veloped and might be termed the socializing function 
of the library. 

The Socializing Function of the Public Library. — The 
seeking of the patron by the library is best illustrated by 
the marked change in public-library administration in 

591 



592 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the past generation. Most of us adults never knew, as 
children, the joy of a room all our own in a library, with 
friezes on the wall, inviting grate fires, beautifully illus- 
trated books for us to handle, and some one to tell us 
stories from them. The children's library, with its free- 
dom in handling books selected by experts, and with 
direction through the story hour, is a comparatively re- 
cent feature which, no doubt, will prove to be one of 
the farthest-reaching influences for culture in Ameri- 
can childhood. A corresponding social feature for adults 
is being developed by popular lectures, general open 
shelves, and study rooms. Indeed, the entire archi- 
tecture of the library has been changed to meet this 
growing social need. No public library is now erected 
without including a children's room and an auditorium, 
as unquestionably as it does a reference room or a stack 
room. Attention is also being given to encouraging the 
appointment of social directors in connection with the 
use of the public-library plant. 1 

The Socializing Function of the College Library. — Col- 
leges are also enlarging their conception of the function 
of the library so as to include the social element. Brows- 
ing rooms, social-study rooms, club rooms, and racks of 
new books for general reading are to be found in most 
university libraries. In Yale University a special room 
has been established in Byers Hall as a social and reading 
centre for the students of the scientific department. It 
aims to be a select library of a few thousand volumes, 
covering standard works in a wide field, and is open with- 
out restriction, though books are not withdrawn from its 
shelves for outside use. The room is comfortably fur- 
nished and is an attractive lounging and browsing place 

1 Survey, February, 1913, p. 675. 



SOCIALIZING FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY 593 

for the students. It is also used as a social meeting-place 
for informal addresses. 

The Brothers and Linonia Library, a somewhat simi- 
lar institution at Yale, is housed in the University Li- 
brary and contains, roughly, twenty-five thousand vol- 
umes, with free access to the books. It is selected to 
cover the whole field of knowledge, and aims to meet 
the demands of the general readers as opposed to those 
of the special students whose wants are met elsewhere. 

The Socializing Function of the High School Library. 
— The college library, however, reaches only that very 
small percentage of high school pupils who continue 
their education beyond high school age; the public 
library, on the other hand, can reach all who have a por- 
tion of leisure time and the power and desire for self- 
direction. One of the most important functions, there- 
fore, of the high school library is to introduce pupils to 
the wise use and enjoyment of the public library. This 
introduction should be made by bringing the library to 
the pupil. Trips, conducted by the school librarian, 
through the public library, talks by the public-library 
staff to parents and pupils on home reading, books sent 
by the public library to the school and examined in- 
formally by pupils and school librarian together, and 
many other plans can be devised for awakening this feel- 
ing of an ownership in and a responsibility for the public 
library. 

One of the most progressive libraries in its social activ- 
ities is the Girls' High School Library, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
At the beginning of each term the head of the English 
department arranges for each entering class in English 
to spend one period in the library or to visit the library 
after school hours. The librarian shows them the illus- 



594 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

trated books which will make their English work inter- 
esting-, escorts them over the library, explains the pictures 
on the walls and available mounted pictures, shows them 
where different classes of books are shelved and where to 
find books recommended for outside reading. An in- 
formal reception each term is also given the pupils of 
the incoming class. Shortly afterward an evening re- 
ception is extended to parents by the principal, the li- 
brarian, and the teachers to encourage the discussion of 
general reading and the building up of home libraries. 
The library is the centre of many clubs which meet after 
school hours under the direction of teachers and librari- 
ans; for example, a City history club, a Biology read- 
ing club, a General literary club, and others. 

The use of bulletin-boards in the corridors for the post- 
ing of newspaper clippings on current events is another 
prominent and valuable social feature of this library. 
The clippings are made by pupils under the direction of 
the librarian. Different pupils, usually in sets of two or 
four, are given charge of the boards for a week at a time. 
The plan is a very simple one and does much in creating 
a social atmosphere. 

Pupils who have free study periods are urged to go 
to the library to read for the pure joy of reading. A 
browsing corner of good editions of interesting biog- 
raphies, novels, poems, and essays is made attractive 
by the use of picture post-cards and bulletin-boards. 
Plants in all the windows and a spirit of welcome make 
the library a most beloved place, and from fifty to one 
hundred students use it every forty minutes. 

Different High Schools Developing Special Phases. — 
Several special phases of work in connection with high 
school libraries have been developed in different high 



SOCIALIZING FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY 595 

schools and are more or less definitely embodied in the 
school curriculum. We might name these phases as the 
practical phase, the vocational phase, the civic phase, and 
the cultural phase. No one school has, as yet, been able 
to embody them all, nor will it be able to do so until the 
library is made a department in the school with the power 
to develop its interests under special directors, just as 
different courses of language, of science, of mathematics 
are now being developed under teachers especially pre- 
pared for the work. 

The Practical Phase and the Vocational Phase. — The 
practical phase, that of teaching the use of reference 
books, simple indexes, and necessary library tools to aid 
pupils in their search for material is now quite generally 
introduced. It has been so thoroughly outlined in Vol- 
ume I of this work as to need no further discussion here. 

The vocational phase, that phase which studies and 
directs the reading of pupils in lines of their vocational 
interests, is probably best systematized in the Central 
High School of Grand Rapids, Mich. Under the direc- 
tion of the English department, readings and essays are 
assigned which aim to awaken the pupil's interest in his 
future place in the world of action, and to aid him to de- 
termine what he is best fitted to do and how he can best 
prepare himself for doing it. 

The following outline describes the work in general 
from the eighth grade through the twelfth: 

8th Grade, ist Semester 
Topic — A mbition 
Object: To arouse in the pupil a desire to be something and 
somebody in the world; to begin to look forward and not to live 
entirely in the present. 

Aids: i. Saturday excursions. 
2. Brief talks on biography. 



596 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

8th Grade. 2D Semester 
Topic — The Value of an Education 
Object: To guide the pupil to take the steps beyond the re- 
quirements of the compulsory education laws that will be of 
greatest advantage to his future career; to lead to a proper choice 
of schools, or, when necessary, to the best kind of employment. 
Aids: i. Catalogues of local high schools, academies, technical 
or commercial schools. 

2. Catalogues of trade-schools, etc., of high school grade. 

3. Placement bureau. 

4. Talks by high school pupils who have returned to school 
after several years of struggle in the world. 

9TH Grade, ist Semester 
Topic — Elements of Success in Life 

SUBTOPIC — SELF-ANALYSIS 

Object: Through the study of the elements of character that 
make for success the student is led to reveal himself to the 
teacher or vocational counsellor. Personal experiences, environ- 
ment, associates, tastes, and ideals are brought to bear upon the 
possible future bent of the pupil. 

Aids: i. Themes handed in are strictly confidential and often 
are discussed only with the teacher. Discussion in class is 
always of a general nature to determine the fundamental habits 
that tend toward successful living. 

qth Grade. 2D Semester 
Topic — Elements of Success in Life 
Subtopic — Biography 
Object: To study the elements of character that made for suc- 
cess in the lives of truly successful men and women and to com- 
pare their characteristics with those of the writer. 

Aids: i. Debates and the discussions comparing the merits in 
certain characters. More oral than written work in this grade. 

ioth Grade, ist Semester 
Topic — The World's Work : A Call to Service 
Object: To broaden the pupil's vision of the opportunities for 
service beyond the horizon of his past experience; a study of 
vocations. 



SOCIALIZING FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY 597 

Aids: i. The Junior Association of Commerce (boys). 

2. Work of women's organizations (girls). 

3. Card index of vocations (compiled by students). 

4. The "Home Study Club" (girls). 

ioth Grade. 2D Semester 
Topic — Choosing a Vocation 
Object: To assist the pupil in making a definite choice of a 
vocation. Here is applied all that has been developed before. 
Again the pupil examines himself as to his ability and possible 
future and makes a careful application of these to the field of 
opportunity before him. The key-note is obedience to the call to 
service. 

Aids: i. Vocational Counsellors (in co-operation). 

(a) Teachers of English. 

(b) Parents or guardians. 

(c) Session-room teachers or grade principals. 

(d) Principal of school, chief counsellor. 

iith Grade, ist Semester 

Topic — Preparation for Life's Work 

Object: To begin immediately to connect daily tasks and 

duties with future achievement; to select the subjects necessary 

to meet the requirements of the college or the industry that it is 

proposed to enter. 

Aids: i. Comprehensive selection of catalogues of colleges, 
universities, professional and technical schools. 

2. Vocational card index to catalogues. 

3. Trade journals. 

4. Vocational bulletins, etc. 

iith Grade. 2D Semester 
Topic — Business and Professional Ethics 
Object: At this period the pupil should take time to con- 
sider the ethics of his calling. He should understand the moral 
responsibilities that will rest upon him in his life-work. This 
topic gives a personal and concrete application to the study of 
moral ethics that is extremely practical. 
Aids: i. Investigations of questionable transactions. 



598 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

2. Talks by men and women able to give of their experience to 
the subject. 

3. Criticism of questionable advertising. 

4. Problems of the home. 

12TH Grade, ist Semester 
Topic — Social Ethics : The Individual in His Vocation and Society 

Object: To make a practical study of social ethics from a con- 
crete point of view. 

Aids: i. Assisting in social work as helpers or entertainers at: 

(a) Slum districts. 

(b) Social settlements. 

(c) Playgrounds. 

(d) Social centres (schoolhouses). 

(e) Charity organization. 

(/) Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. 
(g) The Church. 

2. Girls' social service club. 

3. Boys' leadership club. 

12TH Grade. 2D Semester 

Topic — Civil Ethics. The Individual in His Vocation and the 

State 

Object: To present the obligations of government upon the 
individual in a personal and concrete manner and to arouse an 
interest in civic problems that will result in a more righteous 
citizenship. 

Aids: i. Schemes for getting into actual touch with civic 
conditions. 

2. Tours to inspect such things as: 

(a) Pavements. 

(b) Lighting of streets. 

(c) Enforcement of juvenile laws. 

(d) Health conditions. 

(e) Fire protection. 

(/) Safeguarding public money. 
(g) Pure-food laws, etc. 

3. Boys' "House of Representatives." 

(Debating club) 



SOCIALIZING FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY 599 

The permanent school records are kept on a card-filing 
system. Scholarship records are made on one side of the 
card and on the reverse side is the "vocational record.' ' 

The Civic Phase. — That phase which develops the 
pupil's interest in the history, the growth, and the gov- 
ernment of his locality could be made to contribute a 
valuable service to the social life of the community. An 
excellently planned system for the study of local govern- 
ment has been adopted in Newark, N. J. Twenty-seven 
leaflets have been prepared through the co-operation of 
high school teachers, librarians in the public library, and 
others, and printed by the board of education. The 
leaflets are studied by the pupils in the city schools 
under school direction. Topics of some of the leaflets 
are as follows: " Public-School System of Newark"; 
"Police Department of Newark"; "Fire Department 
of Newark"; "Newark Geography"; "Playgrounds"; 
"Transportation"; "City Government"; "Noise in 
City"; "Juvenile Courts"; "Men and Women of New- 
ark" (biographical sketches) ; "Water-Supply"; "Street 
Paving"; "City Cleaning"; "Charities." 1 Such a 
plan could be adapted to almost any city through the 
use of city manuals, reports of city commissioners, news- 
paper clippings, and local history. Professor James H. 
Tufts, of the University of Chicago, has given many ex- 
cellent reasons for developing work of this character. To 
quote in part: " To get before boys and girls at the out- 
set the idea that all our industry has, as its end, to serve 
man, would be a great gain. ... To get young people 
to make some intelligent appraisal of what society does 
for them, and what it ought to do that it fails to do, to 

1 Certain phases of this plan are discussed in the Library Journal for 
April, 1913, p. 198. 



600 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

get definitely before them the vision of the public inter- 
ests and public welfare, as having claims paramount to 
private gain — this is a task for the future: existing 
materials are not adequate, new materials must be 
provided." 

A plan for aiding those interested in conducting lec- 
tures on social subjects of vital interest is being system- 
atized by Josiah Strong and W. D. P. Bliss, editor of the 
Encyclopedia of Social Reform. Each lecture is type- 
written and is accompanied by a box of fifty slides, care- 
fully packed. These lectures have been recommended 
by colleges, churches, Y. M. C. A. secretaries, and other 
social workers. A high school librarian with limited 
time for preparation could well use one or more of this 
series for a course of evening lectures. The series en- 
titled "Social Problems" includes the following six 
lectures, rented for fifteen dollars. (Address, American 
Institute of Social Service, 80 Bible House, New York.) 
"Hours and Wages, or How the Other Half Live." 
"Housing, or Where the Other Half Live." 
"Women and Children in Toil, or the New Slavery." 
"Amusement Problems, or Social Centres vs. Dance- 
Halls." 

"Battle for Health." 
"The Coming City." 

The Cultural Phase. — The cultural phase might be 
considered as representing that intangible something 
which reveals those finer spiritual elements in literature 
and life which we all love, but which we cannot define, 
nor systematize, nor examine; and yet real culture 
touches the deepest and most vital springs from which a 
nation's life is watered and determines the uplifting 
power of that nation's place in history. 






SOCIALIZING FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY 601 

But cultural growth is no more a haphazard develop- 
ment than is intellectual growth. In the rush of this 
utilitarian age are we not in danger of curtailing some of 
the influences which feed the finer feelings and touch the 
deeper needs? As the growth of the body requires pe- 
riods of unconscious sleep, so the growth of our finer 
nature requires periods in which we are unconscious of 
the active, commercial, temporary life. These periods 
for the development of the better self come through the 
occasional leisure hours, for life is not all activity; it 
requires periods of rest if it is to be musical, even as 
music requires rest. 

How to use leisure hours, therefore, becomes the most 
vital of questions, which carries with it a duty to train 
young people to be wisely self-directing in choosing what 
is worthy of their time, and to give them a master-key 
which can unlock only the best in the great world of 
books and magazines and newspapers. If the school 
library should take for one of its aims a revelation, 
through social readings and popular talks, of what con- 
stitutes the best and of what can be accomplished by 
oneself after school direction is over, it would indeed 
render a rich service. 

Lectures Including Parents. — A well-chosen series of 
graded lectures in general cultural subjects would do 
much in awakening this desire for the best, and in reveal- 
ing how to find it for oneself. If such lectures were 
given after regular school hours, or, better yet, in the 
evening, so that parents could be included, a social 
atmosphere could be made to take the place of a school 
atmosphere, and thus a broader interest could be de- 
veloped. Some simple system of giving extra credit for 
taking these lecture courses might be devised which 



602 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

would insure attention and protect the pupil's time. 
Many parents would welcome such an opportunity for 
their own development and thoroughly enjoy it in con- 
nection with the school life of their children. A few 
printed notes, on slips about the size of an average pro- 
gramme, would be a very simple way of systematizing 
the information for which the pupils could be held 
responsible. 

One grade might work out the topic of great myths 
and legends as illustrated by artists, showing the pictures 
on the screen with the aid of the stereopticon or reflec- 
toscope. Another grade might treat musicians in a 
similar way, using a Victrola if necessary; another, a 
course in epoch-making events in science and history; 
continuing thus, some large topic of general interest 
could be given in each grade of the school. 

In vocational schools many of the cultural subjects 
are necessarily limited. A course of this nature might 
soften the practical and open a way for self-direction 
out of the sordid into the real. It would offer an oppor- 
tunity to recommend and introduce many good books 
for suggestive but not required reading. Such a series 
of lecture courses should aid materially in familiarizing 
high school pupils with common allusions in literature 
and history. It might well be culminated with a selected 
list of the most common allusions which are supposed to 
be recognized by intelligent people, with the requirement 
that the greater number of them be mastered. 1 In voca- 
tional high schools, or high schools where elective courses 

1 A pamphlet containing a graded alphabetical list of nearly one 
thousand such allusions has been prepared by the author. Particu- 
lars can be ascertained from the author for a self-addressed stamped 
envelope. 






SOCIALIZING FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY 603 

prevail, it has become possible for pupils to be graduated 
who have never heard of Virgil, or of Beethoven, or of 
Darwin. We certainly owe a duty to high school edu- 
cation to introduce somewhere a rounding process which 
shall enable pupils to have something of an intelligent 
response, at least, to the names of great men in different 
lines of the world's work, and to the epoch-making 
books and events and music and science in the progress of 
civilization. 1 

Training for Large Views. — Now, no one department 
of the school is so well adapted to fulfil this rounding 
process as is the library. In the multiplicity of school 
departments, is there any other one which could have 
for an aim the development of the power to take broad 
views of many subjects without a specialized study in 
any one? The ability to make a wise discrimination 
between essential and non-essential points is rare in 
both adults and pupils; yet such a mental grasp is most 
desirable. To train the mind for broad views is quite 
as essential as it is to train it for specialized views. Even 
as we need wide views of life to prepare us for complete 
living, so a student needs a wide view of what the library 
has to offer to prepare him for the complete use of his 
opportunities in the intellectual field. The person who 
has never left his native town becomes provincial and 
shows the effect of limited environment; so also does the 
mind which has never left its own specialty or its own 
intellectual preferences. The value of travel in educa- 
tion is recognized to-day to such an extent that many 
colleges and even public schools are granting a Sabbati- 
cal year to teachers, on part salary, that they may have 

1 For a further discussion of this plan, see Proceedings of the National 
Education Association for 191 2, Library Department, p. 1285. 



604 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the opportunity of a wider experience and of developing 
broader interests. 

If pupils can be systematically introduced to a kind 
of outline map of the extent and range of subjects under 
which the material in the libraries is classified and be 
given a rudder and compass to guide them, with a word 
of suggestion regarding the ports that are really worth 
sailing into and the snags and quicksands of the medi- 
ocre, many a voyage through books will be taken which 
otherwise would never be attempted or realized as pos- 
sible. Many times all that is necessary to insure the safe 
passage through the ocean of books is a little personal 
guiding, or suggestion, or revelation. Suggestion often 
has more motor power than direction. Libraries are 
the avenues through which this power of suggestion can 
best find a medium, and high school education should be 
broad enough to include in its curriculum a course in the 
choice and use of books which shall be recognized as of 
equal value with language or mathematics or any other 
subjects, and therefore be allowed a dignified consider- 
ation and be given sufficient number of hours of credit 
to insure its success. 

Libraries Should Be Recognized as Departments. — 
Each one of the phases discussed above has so many 
avenues for growth that it is manifestly impossible for 
any one person to develop them all. If progressive 
schools large enough to warrant the step would or- 
ganize the library interests into a department, place at 
the head of this department one who is college-bred, with 
library training in addition, and who is also tempera- 
mentally fitted to be a social, an intellectual, and a cul- 
tural leader, a great step forward would be taken. An 
organized department could, with what assistance the 






SOCIALIZING FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY 605 

growth of the work demanded, render most valuable ser- 
vices to the social interests of the school in working out 
lecture courses, suggesting and arranging intergrade de- 
bates, planning dramatic entertainments or programmes 
for special-day celebrations, and otherwise selecting lit- 
erature for the social as well as the academic life of the 
school. Such an organized department could also do 
much for the vocational interests of the school in ar- 
ranging talks by business men for the pupils and their 
parents on the business interests and possibilities of the 
locality, or lectures on local government by city officials 
or other plans. 

Present versus Future Status of the Library. — But 
under the present condition of the school library one 
person, who is usually rated, in status and salary, as 
between a clerk and a teacher, must develop all that is 
developed from the library centre. If forward move- 
ments are to be encouraged, the librarian must be recog- 
nized in the school system as a department head; she 
should be required to comply with the educational quali- 
fications and special training which such a position should 
demand; and she should be granted the same salary, 
status, and necessary assistants as are tendered heads of 
other departments of the school. 

That condition which accepts the library as an adjunct 
to the principal's office, or merely as a centre for encyclo- 
pedic information, or for the exchanging and recording 
of books, or as a branch only of the public library, with 
no developing power of its own, must soon pass away. 

In most high schools all other departments are well 
organized, yet the library has larger opportunities for 
touching the cultural side of the school life and of awak- 
ening a response to a wider number of interests than 



606 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

has any other single department. One who has never 
studied the possibilties of a high school library cannot 
realize the need of placing in charge of it the best-trained, 
the most adaptable, the most devoted, the most original 
of workers if forward movements are to be developed. 
The very fact that its duties cannot be definitely out- 
lined makes it doubly necessary to place in charge of 
them one who is self-directing and possesses executive 
ability in addition to educational qualifications. 

The dream of high school libraries equipped with spe- 
cial rooms for different phases of the work, with a gen- 
eral room even including rocking-chairs and a grate, is 
not unduly Utopian. It has already been realized in 
some of our Western high schools, as, for example, Spo- 
kane and Pasadena. It is as attainable, generally, as 
were laboratories, or athletic fields, or manual-training 
equipment. The recognition of the college library as a 
department, essential in the university life, and a unit 
which must be under scholarly direction, with adequate 
assistance, is universally conceded. A corresponding 
dignity and opportunity should be conceded to the high 
school library if it is to fulfil its possibilities in secondary 
education. Many high schools which devote a very large 
percentage of space to gymnasiums, dining and cooking 
rooms, sewing rooms, swimming pools, commercial rooms, 
and similar equipments, and which place in charge of 
these interests men and women who are trained for their 
work and compensated in salary and opportunity as de- 
partment heads, devote to the library a small, crowded 
room, inadequate funds, no assistants, often estimating 
the care of free text-books as legitimate library duties, 
and compensate the librarian with a salary less than that 
of a regular teacher. Once recognize this situation, and 



SOCIALIZING FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY 607 

realize the power that a well-directed and adequately 
supported library can be in a school, and the future will 
vote the necessary support. 

Library Section 

national council of teachers of english 

Statement adopted at Chicago, November 28, 19 13 

In view of the rapid growth of the library and its function in 
modern education, the Library Section of the National Council 
of Teachers of English, in session at Chicago, November 28, 
1 913, presents for the consideration and approval of educational 
and civic and State authorities the following: 

First.'— Good service from libraries is indispensable to the best 
educational work. 

Second. — The wise direction of a library requires scholarship, 
executive ability, tact, and other high-grade qualifications, to- 
gether with special training for the effective direction of cul- 
tural reading, choice of books, and teaching of reference prin- 
ciples. 

Third. — Because much latent power is being recognized in 
the library and is awaiting development, it is believed that so 
valuable a factor in education should be accorded a dignity wor- 
thy of the requisite qualifications, and that, in schools and edu- 
cational systems, the director of the library should be recognized 
as a department head who shall be able to undertake progres- 
sive work, be granted necessary assistants, and be compensated 
in status and salary equally with the supervisors of other de- 
partments. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Meyer Bloomfield 
director of the vocation bureau of boston 

New Interest in Life Careers of School Children. — 

Unusual interest in the life careers of school children has 
become active throughout the country. There is a 
growing sympathy with the perplexities which beset 
youth adrift in early employment and with the work 
experiences of that multitude of boys and girls who, in- 
stead of building futures as efficient bread-winners, are 
taking gambler's chances with such resources and oppor- 
tunities as may be theirs. 

There is a new scrutiny of the adequacy of both the 
tools of education and of employment. In no depart- 
ment of school service are the interest and scrutiny 
keener at the present time than in the high school. In 
more than a score of cities there are committees of high 
school principals and teachers organized to study the 
vocational-guidance problems of the pupils and the rela- 
tion of the offered courses to these problems. Just as 
the alert elementary schools are investigating the causes 
of the dropping out of school of the boys and girls who 
might well have prolonged the schooling they so much 
needed, so many a high school has awakened to the fact 
that there is a preventable waste in the high school en- 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 609 

rolment too. Public-spirited men and women, through 
various newly created societies, are co-operating with 
the school system in many a city to guard the transition 
from school to work and to follow up the social effect 
of the employments open to elementary and high school 
pupils. There is a conviction, growing increasingly 
clear and strong, that both school and vocation must be 
so adjusted as to enable young people to find both life 
and a living in their daily activities. 

Vocational Guidance. — This, then, is the basic idea of 
vocational guidance: — School life should awaken and 
give content to the life-career motive, and occupational 
life should definitely augment the gains made by the 
workers during their school life. 

A few simple principles which appeal to the conscience 
and the common sense of the thinking person underlie 
vocational guidance. Nobody doubts that the choosing 
of one's life-work is a serious matter and that such 
choosing cannot safely be left to blind chance. No ob- 
server of present conditions believes that young people 
readily "find themselves," in our complex world of sub- 
divided labor, specialized pursuits, and increasing effi- 
ciency demands — coming, as most boys and girls do, out 
of their sheltered school life, unprepared for the life that 
is ahead of them. School impressions of the working 
world and contact with it are very different things. A 
general interest in the environment and a thorough in- 
vestigation of its various aspects yield very different re- 
sults. One can no longer judge the merits or the draw- 
backs of an occupation through hearsay, tradition, or 
casual inspection. Only expert inquiry, carried on with 
the standard tools of modern research, can bring to fight 
such vital facts in an occupation as its bearing on health, 



610 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

personal development, and economic well-being. Genu- 
ine vocational guidance, therefore, emphasizes not only a 
concrete, intimate, and enduring interest in the indi- 
vidual pupil, but, above all else, it insists upon expert 
study (as opposed to dilettante guessing) of the voca- 
tional progress of children in school and at work. 

Two Important Facts. — Two facts strike one forcefully 
as one considers the need of vocational guidance in our 
schools. One is that never before in the world's history 
have fourteen or fifteen year old children had it so much 
in their own hands to make some of the most momentous 
decisions of life: such decisions as the sort of school or 
course they will enter, how long they will stay, the work 
they will leave school for, and how long they will stay in 
this work. The other fact is that never as much as 
now have we needed a constructive policy on the part 
of the schools to make up to these children what an in- 
dustrial age has taken from them in the way of home 
influence, normal surroundings, and the vocationally di- 
rective value of their daily experiences. 

The Opportunity of the High School. — The high school 
is singularly well placed to render a large measure of 
vocational-guidance service. To it come the children at 
their most critical age, vocationally. It is the period 
when, if ever at all, foundations of vocational efficiency 
are laid. Adolescence is the period of decisive battles, 
the time when the history of many an individual is almost 
finally written. Into the schoolhouse every boy and 
girl brings his or her small world — a world of plenty or 
of privation, temptation or inspiration, care or irrespon- 
sibility. Rare is that school which can pierce this en- 
veloping shell and speak to the real child. Every class- 
room is a tell-tale of its environment. Our many child 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 611 

problems reflect the aloofness of the average school from 
economic influences which bear so many children down. 
Neither brightness nor hard study determines alone the 
quality of a pupil's school work. More important than 
these factors is the sense of economic worthwhileness, 
which the school must bring home to the many children 
tossed between the conflicting interests of the school and 
the challenging world outside. Ruskin has said: " No 
teacher can truly promote the cause of education until 
he knows the conditions of the life for which that educa- 
tion is to prepare his pupil." For that vast majority of 
our high school children who do not complete the high 
school course, instruction unmindful of their probable 
vocational destinies and possibilities is positively an in- 
jury to them and to society. Invidious distinction is 
sometimes made between training for self-support and 
non-vocational education. This discrimination, so pro- 
foundly undemocratic, is a serious obstacle to the even- 
tual lifting of the common employments into the dignity 
of recognized community service. We have not more 
than begun, as yet, to fathom the now neglected possi- 
bilities of life-career training, and of daily work, too, as 
spiritualizing influences; while in our book-enslaved 
routine of teaching we have scarcely sensed the injustice 
to that large class of hand-gifted children, the boys and 
girls born to think through action and to serve their 
fellows through the exercise of bodily energies. 

The High School's Responsibility to Individual Boys 
and Girls. — Obviously, in the high school, of all places, 
there is need of the closest understanding of the personal 
capacities and the personal problems of the children. 
"The special aim of secondary education," Professor 
Hanus has said, "and the teacher's greatest responsi- 



612 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

bility — a responsibility not often recognized or acknowl- 
edged hitherto — therefore, consists in the discovery and 
the special development of each pupil's dominant inter- 
ests, in so far as these interests represent possibilities of 
development in harmony with the general aim of educa- 
tion, and in the constant use of the course of study as a 
means of intelligent experimentation, until the pupil's 
self -revelation is complete. During this stage, therefore, 
as the pupil advances, the relative educational values 
of different subjects for each pupil correspond more and 
more with the relative degrees of interest they develop. " 
Professor Hanus believes that a proper application of 
these principles will lead to that desirable although at 
present apparently unattainable result that each youth 
will learn to know his powers and defects and will be 
aided to select deliberately that calling for which he is 
best fitted by nature. 

Vocational Guidance and Educational Guidance. — 
The vocational-guidance movement has, among other 
things, made clear one of the most important and gener- 
ally neglected services which a school can render, and 
that is educational guidance. In Boston, for example, 
where vocational-guidance interest is keen among the 
teachers, and the work of vocational assistance to chil- 
dren in the schools is active, it was found that vocational 
information and guidance could not well go on without 
steps being first taken to organize a scheme of giving 
information about existing vocational-training oppor- 
tunities in the city. A curious situation was revealed— 
not at all peculiar to Boston — showing that there was a 
gap, so far as any genuine and informed relationship was 
concerned, between the elementary school and the high 
school, almost as marked as that between the school and 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 613 

the job. Children drifted into the high school very much 
as they drifted into a job. It became necessary, there- 
fore, in the Boston work, to inform the vocational 
counselors specifically as to what the high schools of the 
city could offer to children of various aptitudes and life- 
career plans. Educational guidance, therefore, the Bos- 
ton vocational counselors maintain, is the foundation of 
vocational guidance. 

If children cannot be intelligently directed to the 
course of study most appropriate from the view-point of 
their needs and capacities, it is idle to expect effective 
service in the infinitely more difficult field of vocational 
information and assistance. Such educational direction, 
however, needs the same careful preliminary investiga- 
tion and scrutiny of the high school plant and scheme as 
does the vocation. An excellent illustration of such pro- 
cedure is to be found in the inquiry carried on by Miss 
Bessie D. Davis, of the Somerville, Mass., high school, 
and a member of the Vocation Bureau Guidance Course. 
The following questionnaire was employed by Miss Davis 
to ascertain from the two thousand or more pupils of this 
school just why they happened to be in the courses in 
which they had enrolled themselves. This school has 
five departments, as follows: The general, the college- 
preparatory, the manual arts, the commercial, and the 
two-year commercial. 

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS 

HIGH SCHOOL, SOMERVILLE, MASS. 

Name Age Yrs. Mos. Class Room 

i. Do you expect to complete a course of four years in the high 
school? 

2. If not, how many years do you expect to stay? 



614 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

3. If you do not expect to remain four years, what is the reason: 

(a) Financial conditions? 

(b) Lack of success in school work? 

(c) Desire to go to work? 

(d) Loss of interest? 

4. Please underline the course which you are now taking: 

(a) General; (c) Manual Arts; 

(b) College Preparatory; (d) Commercial; 

(e) Two-year Commercial. 

5. What led you to choose this course: 

(a) Advice of parents, teachers, friends? 

(b) Success of others? 

(c) Belief in your personal qualifications and ability for the 

work of this course? 

6. Do you know what studies are included in this course: 
(a) In the first year? (b) In the second year? 
(c) In the third year? (d) In the fourth year? 

7. What qualifications do you think, you have for the work of 

this course? 

8. What line of work do you intend to follow after you leave 

high school? 

9. What do you understand to be the requirements of this work? 

10. How have you ascertained these requirements? 

11. Is this the work which you really desire to do? 

12. What have your parents advised? 

13. To what extent, if any, have possible financial benefits in- 

fluenced your choice? 

14. If this is not the work which you really desire to do, why are 

you not preparing to follow your personal choice? 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 615 

15. What service to the community are you planning to render 
through your vocation? 

Extra: 

A. For College Preparatory Pupils: 

1. For what college are you preparing? 

2. Why have you chosen this college? 

3. What are its requirements? 

B. For Scientific, Normal School, Normal Art School, etc., 

Preparatory Pupils: 

1. For what school are you preparing? 

2. Why have you chosen this school? 

3. What are its requirements? 

Note. — Please answer questions in full where space is given; 
otherwise, as briefly as possible. The purpose of this inquiry 
is to help in the conduct of the school rather than to be inquisi- 
tive concerning the personal affairs of the pupils. Please answer 
frankly. Replies will be considered confidential. 

January, 19 13. 

A printed copy of this questionnaire was, without 
warning, given each pupil of the three upper classes one 
morning in February, 191 2. One period, about forty-five 
minutes, was allowed for the answering of the questions. 
No attempt was made to have absent pupils answer 
them later. The same plan was followed a week later 
in an afternoon session with first-year pupils. 

The present report is based on only 1,226 of these 
papers. These 1,226 include, however, every year and 
every course, and are, therefore, enough from which to 
draw conclusions. No attempt has been made to reduce 
all the answers to tables and. schedules. Summaries are 
here given, or actual quotations which give real insight 
into the pupil's mind and heart. 

For the first two questions, however, a table seems 
most illuminating: 



616 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



QUESTION I 



QUESTION II 



YEAR 


NO. OF 
PUPILS 


AVER- 
AGE 
AGE 


YES 


NO. 
YRS. 


? 


1 


1 


1-2 


2 


2-3 


3 


s 


? 

3 

1 
1 
4 


1913 

1914 

1915 

I916 

1917 

Totals... 


188 
24O 

394 
230 

174 


18.27 
17.29 
16.55 
15.36 
14.72 


184 
233 
36l 
187 
137 


O 

I 
16 
32 
29 


2 

5 
5 
7 
6 
















2 

3 

1 


5 

1 


1 


1 

2 
3 


1 
3 
3 


11 

23 
20 


3 
1 








1,226 




1,102 


78 


25 


1 


6 


7 


54 


4 


6 


6 


9 



It is evident that there is less certainty in the minds of 
first and second year pupils regarding the length of stay 
in the school. The large number of two-year statements 
is doubtless due to the fact that most of these pupils 
belong to the two-year commercial class. The reasons 
given for less than four years' stay fall under the respec- 
tive headings, as follows: 



YEAR 


A 


B 


c 


D 


tA * 

w 

eg 




1913.... 

1914 

1915.... 

I916. . . . 

1917 

Totals . . 


I 
I 

9 

10 

21 


I 
2 

3 


6 


2 
4 

8 
9 

23 


2 
I 

I 

2 

6 


4 
4 

6 

5 

19 


To prepare at Exeter Academy. 
Three other schools — one moved 

away. 
Five other schools or business 

college, one 2-year course. 
Four other schools, one account 

of knowledge. 



Financial conditions and desire to go to work are evi- 
dently the chief reasons. 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 617 

Of the 1,209 pupils 154 are in the general course; 489 
in the college preparatory, which includes normal and 
scientific pupils also; 29 in the normal-arts course, which 
is new and not well understood; 480 in the commercial 
course; 56 in the two-year commercial; and 1 special stu- 
dent. In the senior and junior classes more are in the 
college divisions; in the sophomore and freshman classes 
the commercial course predominates. 

It is in the reasons for choice of these courses that 
special interest lies, and in the change of course. Of the 
latter n were mentioned. Several of these are worth 
noticing : 

1. Started in B. Changed to A — due to poor marks 
and death of father. 

2. Changed to A because he had no definite plan at 
first. 

3. Changed from A to B at the beginning of the fourth 
year, etc. 

That they and others needed guidance is shown by 
such reasons for choice as these: 

1. " Chosen at random." 

2. (D) " Mostly because there was nothing I really 
wanted, and I had to take something." 

3. (A) " Did not intend to go to college or take busi- 
ness course." 

4. (D) " Didn't know what else to take." 

In view of these answers one is not surprised to find 
that of 1,118 answers to question 6 only 426 indicate 
knowledge of the work of the four years; 145 of three 
years; 272 of two years; and 275 of the first year. The 
first and the second year pupils know little about the 
years ahead; no wonder they make serious errors in 
choice. 



618 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Their ideas for their qualifications for the course taken 
range from " None " or " I'm sure I don't know " to 
statements of personal factors, special abilities or inter- 
ests, etc. Among the most interesting are these : 

" Ability to do mathematics better than many girls. " 

" A brain and ability to study until I get what I want." 

" Willingness to work hard." 

" Ambition, honesty, common sense, good health, etc." 

The occupations to be followed later cover much 
ground. They are divided into four groups for com- 
parison : 

i. Commercial, including bookkeeping, stenography, 
etc. 

2. Future study, including college, normal school, etc.; 
professional and semi-professional work, including law, 
medicine, music, art, etc., and the trades. Of the 1,226 
only n indicated a desire to engage in the work of trades. 
Many already know what profession they purpose to 
engage in; and many plan to go into commercial life — ■ 
172 as stenographers, 36 as bookkeepers, and 56 in 
office work. 

Knowledge of the requirements of these occupations 
is limited. Personal factors are named in much the 
same way as in answer to question 7. Business factors, 
ability to work, appreciate the value of time; " willing- 
ness to do what is required, and more, if necessary," are 
mentioned. Special demands are spoken of in very few 
instances; viz., apprenticeship or special training. Is it 
any wonder that, looking for information concerning 
employments, one says later, "There is nothing to take 
to be a nurse," and another, that he made a mistake in 
taking the wrong course and cannot, therefore, prepare 
for the vocation he desires? 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 



619 



Information has been gained from many sources — ■ 
people, reading, inquiry, experience, observation, and 
thought. One suggested examining and checking off 
subjects already taken. And one, bewildered, asked for 
advice. His case was followed up with care. 

Answers to question 14 show that financial conditions 
and family objections are the chief obstacles. But one 
finds as reasons: 

"I made a mistake in taking the wrong course." 
"I couldn't change my course." 
"I do not want to carry out the course." 
"No personal ability for any kind of work." 
These are the people likely to be discouraged and leave 
school. 

That parents know too little about the school and 
play too small a part in the child's choice of work there 
is indicated by the next group of answers: 





AGREE 


DISAGREE 


NOTHING 


OWN 
CHOICE 


GENERAL 
ADVICE 


1913 


127 

145 
287 
130 
in 


IO 

25 
27 
18 
15 


7 

13 
8 

7 
4 


16 
24 
17 

5 
5 


6 

1 

3 
12 


1914 


1915 


1916 


1917 


Totals 


800 


95 


39 


67 


22 



Unfortunately, too many of the first group may be like 
the case of one pupil who said parental advice was: 
" Think and decide; then let me know to approve or dis- 
approve." One has reason to believe that such is often 
th£ case because so many say that they made their own 
choice. As one puts it: "They have given a good deal of 



620 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

advice, but let me be guided by my own wishes." An- 
other says: " Nothing. I chose this work of my own ac- 
cord. I am putting myself through school. " Still an- 
other: "No advice to give." And a boy whose longing 
for ornithology has not yet been met by information or 
help wrote concerning parents' advice: "Nothing. Ab- 
solutely nothing." His mother died only a few years 
ago. 

Financial benefits have much to do with choices. 
Two hundred and eighty- three say frankly that it did. 
One says that he has a brother going to college. An- 
other: "Must support parents." "Family need sup- 
port; father is not living." "College graduates obtain 
better-paying positions." "Want to earn money for 
a musical career." "Most money in it for me." "I 
shall have to work my way if I go to college. If I really 
knew what I should like to become I should go to college ; 
but I think that it would be a waste of time to do some- 
thing that I do not know anything about." 

Service to the community was to many a new idea. 
Twenty admitted that they had not thought about it 
and 58 did not know what they could do. Some cared 
little for others. One said: "None. I am going to look 
after myself first." "None. I expect to be a peaceful 
citizen," answered another. 

Many, however, showed much thought and under- 
standing of what service might mean. The answers are 
grouped under the headings — through work, social help, 
as a citizen, through character, all possible. Some were, 
like the last, mentioned in vagueness. Others were very 
specific. Here are several typical replies: 

"Hope to be instrumental in alleviating suffering 
caused by cancer." 






VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 621 

"Aid city government." 

"Be a credit to S ." 

"The better I am educated the more I can do for the 
community." 

"To better conditions where I live." 

"To lay out better cities." 

"Design public buildings so that they will last." 

"Defend innocent men and women who are accused 
of crime." 

"Help unfortunate people." 

And with unintentional humor and perhaps sad com- 
ment on what he has heard and read: "Justify wrong." 

To awaken the minds of all pupils to the idea of 
noblesse oblige is surely the duty of any school. 

Of these pupils many are going to colleges and other 
higher institutions. Harvard, Tufts, and Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology attract the larger number 
of boys; Radcliffe, Wellesley, Simmons, Salem Normal 
School, and Boston Normal Art School of the girls. 

Answers with regard to choosing college, etc., and re- 
quirements were fewer in number. Only 357 answered 
the former and 282 the latter. Location, standing of 
scholarship and instructions offered, time required, repu- 
tation, experience, and recommendations of others, type 
of graduates, cost of tuition, etc., all are mentioned in 
some way or other. It is, however, plain that informa- 
tion is general and limited. Knowledge of requirement 
seems to be still less. Perhaps many, like one, "leave it 
to the principal," or "keep a book of requirements at 
home," etc. Apparently, they little realize that require- 
ments differ as do colleges. 

It is rather encouraging to find some opposition on the 
part of the parents which must arouse the pupil. Some 



622 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

parents urge the choice of definite instead of drifting 
attitude; some have such radically different choices as 
music, not stenography, or private school instead of office 
work. 

Even parents disagree, and we find father wanting his 
boy to be a surveyor and mother choosing for him a 
business course. 

" Not, however," Miss Davis asserts, " until grammar- 
school masters and teachers work more closely with high 
school masters and teachers, and both groups work with 
pupils and parents, can the needs indicated in these 
papers be met. Every master of a grammar-school 
should visit the high school of his city, study its work, 
and be ready with co-operation of the high school teach- 
ers to give such information as will help pupils choose 
carefully courses which will look far ahead. Then, in the 
high school there should be flexibility enough to permit 
of readjustments. There is no reason why those in the 
wrong course by mistake must stay there. Finally, the 
high school must give to the pupils, whether they ask it 
or not, definite, clear, simple information regarding the 
work they may do in the world. Not until all this is 
adequately done will the gap between the high school 
and the grammar-school, on the one hand, and the high 
school and after-life, on the other, be bridged." 

One of the most profitable sessions of the Boston School 
Counselors (a body of teachers representing every ele- 
mentary and high school in Boston and meeting fort- 
nightly) was that devoted to a brief description on the 
part of their head masters of what the six central high 
schools of the city offered and what kind of boys and 
girls could make best use of the opportunities. The fol- 
lowing was the programme: 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 623 



Presentation of the Work Done and the Kind of Pupil 
Desired in the Central High Schools. 

Mr. Henry Pennypacker, head master, The Public Latin School. 

Mr. John F. Casey, head master, The English High School. 

Mr. Myron W. Richardson, head master, The Girls' High School. 

Mr. James E. Downey, head master, The High School of Com- 
merce. 

Mr. Herbert S. Weaver, head master, The High School of Prac- 
tical Arts. 

Mr. Charles W. Parmenter, head master, The Mechanic Arts 
High School. 

In the effort of the elernentary school counselor to 
understand the requirements of the high school and in 
the co-operation between these two divisions children 
will be positively stimulated to stay in the schools until 
they are better prepared to enter occupational life. 

The Child in Industry. — The child-welfare organiza- 
tions of the country have made clear the social waste- 
fulness of tolerating the employment of children from 
fourteen to sixteen years of age without at least a com- 
pensating provision for training. Many an employer, 
too, admits the unprofitableness of employing children 
at these ages. These years are, as has already been 
said, the seed-time of efficiency. Skilled mechanics 
know this, for they often try to protect their growing 
boys by careful search for available apprenticeship oppor- 
tunities. These are the years which come peculiarly 
within the province of the high school. But it is not 
the traditionally organized high school which can hope 
to interest children who have decided to leave on their 
fourteenth birthday, a period reached so often when 
they are only in the sixth or seventh grade of the ele- 
mentary school. 



624 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Articulation of Elementary and High School. — The 

main defect in our traditional education ladder is that, 
being left without landing-places, it has forced the chil- 
dren to improvise jumping-off places instead. In a num- 
ber of high schools, however, the rigidity of this ladder 
scheme has been, fortunately, abandoned, and in its 
place has been substituted a structure more adjustable 
to facts. In the schools of Newton, Mass., for example, 
fourteen and fifteen year old children have been, for 
several years, transferred from the grammar grades to a 
special high school conducted by a capable teacher whose 
duty it is to fit them into flexible high school programmes 
of study. Effort is made to ascertain the future plans, 
special aptitudes, the home, and economic conditions of 
these special pupils, so that the secondary instruction 
may subserve their needs. In some other cities the de- 
partment heads in the high schools have been required 
to prepare statements showing both the vocational and 
cultural bearing of each of the courses given. Such ad- 
justments and such reinterpretations of the high school 
scheme make for a fresh sense of values in secondary 
education. 

Causes of Elimination. — A sufficient number of in- 
vestigations have been carried on through both public 
and private agencies in this country to establish the fact 
that only a small porportion of the children who drop 
out of the elementary school to go to work do so because 
of pressure of circumstances. Miss Eleanor Colleton, a 
Boston teacher, assigned to a vocational-guidance in- 
vestigation in certain school districts of the city, tells of a 
girls' school in which the fourteenth birthday is regarded 
as the leaving signal. In the neighborhood of this school 
it seems to be a matter of course that a fourteen-year-old 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 625 

girl should be working in a candy factory, tailoring shop, 
or department store. This is true with respect to boys 
also. Academic appeals to continue in school seem 
futile .beside the lure of wage-earning independence, of 
mingling with sophisticated adults, of counting with 
older brothers and sisters, and of helping struggling par- 
ents who in their narrow field of livelihood probably rep- 
resent even less economic value than do their blind-alley 
children. Pitiful necessity does, indeed, tear ambitious 
children out of school. Every teacher counts among her 
most pathetic experiences such separations and in mo- 
ments of reflection must marvel at the supineness of so- 
ciety in the face of this continual shipwrecking of child 
ambition and capacity. When talent saving becomes 
a community duty we shall probably find scholarships 
provided for these children after the effective manner 
shown by the scholarship committee of the Henry Street 
Settlement of New York and the Schmiddlap Fund of 
Cincinnati. For these children we shall see, too, a sys- 
tem of continuation schools provided which shall assure 
to working youth an opportunity to develop into nor- 
mal citizens. 

A School Investigation. — For that other and large mass 
of children who go and come as they please in the upper 
grades of the elementary school and in the high schools 
(children with no intention to go to college and no desire 
to prepare for a professional life), a large variety of ex- 
perimental investigations will be necessary in order to 
work out a programme which can win their interest and 
fit them for a right start in life. One such highly in- 
structive experiment has been in operation for three 
years at the North Bennett Street Industrial School, a 
philanthropic institution in the North End of Boston. 



626 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

In September, 1909, a class of twenty-one boys about 
thirteen years of age, ranging from fifth to eighth grades, 
was received from the Eliot School, a neighboring public 
grammar-school, for instruction in a modified course in- 
cluding both academic and industrial work. Four pupils 
left during the year for sufficient reasons. The remain- 
ing seventeen were, many of them, poor boys. Previous 
to entering this class they had expressed their intention 
of leaving school as soon as possible. They were now of 
age to receive work papers, yet in September, 1910, 
all but one returned to the class. He had moved to 
Italy. Five new pupils were received. 

Results of Prevocational Course. — In a recent an- 
nual report of this institution, it is stated that the 
prevocational course had accomplished the following 
results : 

1. Stimulated intelligent appreciation of industrial 
life and processes. 

2. Developed habits of industry and a love for pro- 
ductive and constructive work. 

3. Encouraged the spirit of co-operation on which de- 
pends not only the success of the modern shop but also 
the success of the individual life. 

4. Brought the life and interests of the school more 
closely in touch with the working life to be lived after 
school-days are over. 

5. Revealed to the pupils, to some extent, their pecu- 
liar bent, so that the choice of an occupation may be 
more intelligently made. 

6. Given the ability to make and read simple working 
drawings. 

7. Given facility in handling common tools and the 
ability to keep them in good working order. 



VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 627 

8. Retained the pupils in school two years longer than 
would otherwise have been possible. 

9. Secured from the entire class the voluntary prom- 
ise to return in the fall for a second year. 

The work during the second year was even more prom- 
ising. One boy, formerly very troublesome, was only 
prevented from leaving by the fact that he was under 
fourteen; he took such interest in his work that he said 
he would leave home rather than leave the school, as his 
family wished. As his family had no sufficient means 
of support, he worked on a milk wagon from two o'clock 
in the morning till school time. Boys bring many tools 
from home to have them sharpened — axes, knives, etc. 
A few boys have borrowed tools from the school over 
Sunday to do outside work for which they have been 
paid. Two boys took a job putting in a partition in a 
house and cutting a ticket window in a wall, while an- 
other roofed a piazza for his father. This experiment is 
suggestive of the adjustments which a high school will 
have to make in order to hold on to the children other- 
wise destined to dead-end employments. 

If parents and teachers have been, as yet, only par- 
tially aware of what the high schools might actually do 
to advance the life-career interests of the children, they 
have been, on the whole, thoroughly ignorant as to the 
relative merits and disadvantages of the various em- 
ployments. Vocational investigations have disclosed the 
fact that the jobs which give no training offer good wages 
to fourteen and fifteen year old boys and girls, while 
those in which there is real opportunity pay very little 
to beginners. Almost the smallest factor in the taking 
of a particular job is a desire to learn a trade or the 
business. Plan plays but a small part in the career of 



628 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

most children. One of the most imperative duties of the 
high school, then, is to make sure that its pupils do not 
wander through the four years, or even through one year, 
in this planless way. It makes little difference whether 
such plans be permanent; but whether there is a guiding 
purpose does make very much difference in the child's 
attitude toward school and work. 

For generations the schools have been literally eating 
out of the employer's hands. Social considerations de- 
mand that this situation be ended. The chief agency 
for social service in the future will be the public school. 
Within less than a generation school work has been 
transformed — text-books, curriculums, teaching methods 
and material, and even school architecture have been 
reconstructed in response to broadening community de- 
mands. More far-reaching changes are ahead and many 
of these are in the line of this far-reaching vocational- 
guidance movement. 

The high school which respects the unlikenesses in its 
pupils and shapes its work in sensitive regard for their 
individualities, which gives its boys and girls a vital 
grasp on the present and a vision of the more fruitful 
future, and which augments with its large constructive 
influence the world-wide striving to free youth from un- 
timely economic blight — that high school will be teaching 
with the strength of accomplishment and will be a power 
in the land. 



CHAPTER XXV 

AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 

William C. Ruediger, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND DEAN OF TEACHERS 
COLLEGE, THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 

Recognition of the Problem. — The idea is beginning to 
prevail more and more that education should function 
not only in the home, in citizenship, in industry, and in 
business, but that it should function also in those activi- 
ties that people pursue for the purpose of enjoyment. 
This is manifesting itself in the relatively frequent dis- 
cussion of such topics as education for leisure, education 
for play, and education for recreation. It is asserted 
that the needs and opportunities for recreation have 
changed with the developments in other phases of life, 
that these needs can no longer be adequately met on an 
instinctive and untutored plane, and that, therefore, the 
school should make equipment for the pursuits of leisure 
one of its specific aims. 

Activities Influenced by Education. — The activities of 
life that education should influence may for the purposes 
of this chapter be divided into the following four classes : 
vocational activities, group or social activities, avoca- 
tional activities, and diversions. The first two of these 
may, from the standpoint of the maintenance of human 
life and institutions, be regarded as primary or basal and 
the other two as secondary or supplementary. 

629 



630 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Vocational activities under ordinary conditions are all 
those that are undertaken for economic gain or for mak- 
ing a livelihood. Intelligent skill in them is desired 
by the individual because it tends to furnish him more 
abundantly with the material basis of existence and by 
society because it tends to keep the individual from 
becoming a public charge. 

Social or group activities include all those that are 
undertaken for the purpose of maintaining or improving 
the social whole. Education in them is obviously desir- 
able for both social and personal reasons. They may be 
further subdivided into : 

(a) Family activities, including courtship and mar- 
riage, home making and home life, care and education 
of children, and the like. 

(b) Political activities, including such acts as atten- 
dance upon caucuses and conventions, political propa- 
ganda, voting, and the discharge of military duties. 

(c) Religious and charitable activities, including per- 
sonal religious observances, church life, religious propa- 
ganda, acts of charity and altruistic co-operation, partici- 
pation in charitable organizations, etc. 

(d) Society activities, including calls and friendly cor- 
respondence, club life, receptions, parties, picnics, com- 
panionship, and the like. From the standpoint of the 
maintenance of social relationships, of furnishing social 
cement, it is no doubt proper to place these activities 
here, although from the personal standpoint they may 
be classified also under the head of social diversions. 

The two classes of supplementary activities may for the 
present be considered together. They include all those 
activities that are undertaken for the diversion, enlarge- 
ment, and enrichment of the personality. Economic 






AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 631 

gain and the perpetuation and elevation of the social 
whole are in the immediate view either disregarded alto- 
gether or are relegated to a secondary position. The 
immediate aim is the gratification of the personal tastes 
and interests for the enjoyment that this gratification 
affords. 

Objective and Subjective Standpoints. — It is clear 
that the points of view from which the basal and the 
supplementary activities have just been considered are 
not alike. The former were considered from the objec- 
tive and the latter from the subjective standpoint. 
Both groups may, of course, be considered alternately 
from both standpoints. The increase of life is the sig- 
nificance of the supplementary activities from the sub- 
jective standpoint only, the furnishing of recreation being 
their significance from the objective standpoint. Simi- 
larly, the economic and social activities not only furnish 
the material basis of existence and preserve and improve 
the social whole as a necessary medium of human life, 
but they are also enjoyable in themselves; and the more 
enlightened they are the more enjoyable they are. 

Nevertheless, it appears to be true that the objec- 
tive standpoint is characteristic of the basal, and the 
subjective standpoint of the supplementary activities. 
Even the individual wants intelligent economic and so- 
cial efficiency primarily for the objective rewards that 
these will bring him, while in the supplementary activi- 
ties this matter is reversed, although society always has 
a right to step in and put a veto on socially harmful 
activities. 

The recreation that the supplementary activities bring 
is always obtained best as a by-product. This in itself 
would shift the regard in these activities primarily to the 



632 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

subjective side, but this is not all. Even when it is 
granted that the conditions of life are prior to life itself, 
it is still true that the ultimate end of life is not the 
making of a living, the perpetuation of the social whole, 
or recreation, but life. It is to this that all must ulti- 
mately minister, as they unquestionably do, and the 
direct and vital manner in which the supplementary 
activities minister to life is what constitutes their pri- 
mary significance. 

Avocations and Diversions Distinguished. — The basis 
of dividing the supplementary activities into avocations 
and diversions lies in the permanency with which they 
are respectively pursued. An activity to which one 
turns for a relatively brief period of time, without neces- 
sarily any systematic recurrence, may be called a diver- 
sion, while the term avocation may well be reserved for 
those unconstrained activities to which one turns fre- 
quently and systematically, much as one turns to one's 
vocation. This follows 'the more careful common usage. 
The difference, however, is not so much one of kind as 
of degree. Instead of two distinct classes, we have here 
rather two limits between which the gratuitous activi- 
ties of life are distributed, no sharp dividing line being 
evident. 

As examples of diversions may be mentioned a stroll 
through the woods to-day, attendance upon a ball game 
to-morrow, and visiting with friends in the evening. As 
avocations may be mentioned the pursuits of music, 
painting, literary production or criticism, scientific re- 
search, and craftsmanship alongside of one's vocation. 
The two are obviously supplementary, neither one being 
able to take the place of the other. In a rounded life 
both have a legitimate place. Avocations, however, are 



AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 633 

on a more distinctly acquired plane and are, therefore, 
deserving of more attention by the school. 

Prevalence of Avocational Pursuits. — Among eminent 
people of history avocational pursuits in the sense here 
used appear to have been common. Thomas Jefferson, 
a lawyer and statesman by profession, was a skilled vio- 
linist and is said to have played or practised three hours 
a day. Joseph Jefferson, the actor, painted in his leisure 
hours and ultimately produced pictures of high merit. 
Grote, the historian, followed banking as his primary 
occupation till the age of forty-nine. 

The extent to which eminent men have pursued avo- 
cational pursuits was recently made the subject of in- 
quiry by one of my graduate students, William James 
Mundy. In consultation with me, Mr. Mundy studied 
a selected list of 20 musicians, 20 statesmen, 20 European 
rulers, 20 scientists, 20 divines, and 25 Presidents of the 
United States. He obtained the following statistics of 
avocational activities pursued : 

Musicians 70 per cent 

Statesmen 40 " 

Rulers 70 " 

Scientists 45 " 

Divines 90 " 

Presidents 16 " 

Average 55 per cent 

When the Presidents of the United States are excluded 
the average rises from 55 per cent to 65 per cent. All 
the figures are probably too low, for Mr. Mundy con- 
sulted, in the main, only the brief biographies found in 
cycplopasdias. 

Space forbids the inclusion of all the detailed descrip- 



634 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

tions given by Mr. Mundy, but that pertaining to the 
scientists, which is one of the briefest, follows: 

" Agassiz was a naturalist, geologist, and physician. 
Sir Humphrey Davy was a lecturer and a writer of 
prose and poetry. The poet Coleridge said that, 'had 
he not been the first chemist, he would have been the 
first poet of his age.' Charles Darwin daily devoted 
some time to reading, listening to reading and music, 
and to walking. Erasmus Darwin wrote poetry. Gal- 
ileo even in early life ranked in musical skill and inven- 
tion with the best professors of the art in Italy. Sir 
Frederick W. Herschel became a very skilful musician, 
theoretical and practical. Sir John F. W. Herschel sol- 
aced his declining years with translating the Iliad into 
verse, having earlier executed a similar version of Schil- 
ler's ' Walk.' From an early period in his life, Newton 
paid great attention to theological studies. He wrote a 
complete ' Church History' and many divinity tracts, 
besides his scientific works." 

Qualities of Acceptable Avocations. — With due con- 
sideration of time and purse, the first item to take into 
account in choosing an avocation is personal interest. It 
is here that the native bent of a person can be given 
large and even full sway. Conditions do not always 
permit a person to choose his vocational pursuit along 
the line of his greatest inclination, and whenever this 
is the case an avenue of relief is always open in a 
well-chosen avocation. But even when the vocation is 
well chosen and is diversified in its activities, a person 
still needs a pursuit that is unconstrained, that enlists 
the full measure of his spontaneity, and that grips his 
personality. 

The feature through which an avocation most sue- 






AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 635 

cessfully grips the personality is progressive achievement. 
This must be considered central, for there is no joy so 
life-giving as the joy of achievement. Not mere indul- 
gence of the powers but expression with a purpose 
and outcome is the core of a happy life; and when this 
is accompanied by the use of skill the combination is 
ideal. 

The examples of avocational activities given above, it 
will be remembered, were not stated merely in such 
terms as literature, art, science, and industry, but in 
such terms as literary production, painting, scientific re- 
search, and craftsmanship. This was intentional. It 
was the purpose to bring into the foreground the expres- 
sive rather than the absorptive side of the activities. 
The mere reading of literature, for example, while valu- 
able from other standpoints, is not sufficient from the 
standpoint of an avocational pursuit. This should cul- 
minate ultimately in some form of literary expression, be 
this composition, criticism, dramatics, recitation, or in- 
terpretative reading. The same principle holds also in 
science, art, social work, and other fields of activity. 

But while creative or expressive achievement should 
be regarded as the ultimate goal, it should not be in- 
ferred that reading and study do not also have an hon- 
ored place in an avocational pursuit. They form an in- 
dispensable aspect of nearly every type of progressive 
activity. The stage of independent expression must of 
necessity not only be preceded by a prolonged course of 
reading and study, but it must throughout life be accom- 
panied thereby. 

The progressive feature of achievement implies, as a 
third characteristic of an avocational pursuit, appeal to 
the intellect. Without this characteristic progressive 



636 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

study and achievement would be impossible, and with- 
out progress or growth interest would soon wane. Mere 
sensory or emotional appeal is not sufficient, for this 
soon exhausts itself and settles back to the common- 
place. 

As a fourth desirable quality of an avocation may be 
mentioned possibility of individual pursuit. This is de- 
sirable because one of the chief functions of an avocation 
is to serve as an elevating means of self-entertainment. 
We cannot always depend on our friends for amusement, 
but without having recourse to a cultivated and expand- 
ing interest we are likely to become a burden to ourselves 
when alone. 

This does not mean, of course, that the fruits of an 
avocational pursuit are not to be shared with others. 
Indeed, this sharing must always be looked upon as 
one of the most attractive outcomes of an avocational 
activity. We are inherently so constituted as to want to 
display our achievements before others in the hope of 
receiving their approval and admiration, and without 
this an activity would for most people be quite empty. 
But this by no means precludes periods of private work 
and study; it rather requires them. 

Neither does this characteristic deny that the isolated 
worker, such as the factory hand or office clerk, should, 
as a general rule, aim to choose an avocation that will 
bring him into companionship. He should undoubtedly 
aim in his leisure hours to associate with his fellows both 
from within and from without his own calling. This is 
an objective as well as a subjective social desideratum, 
and when it can be provided for in an avocational pur- 
suit it should be done. Such pursuits as church work, 
choral societies, study clubs, and athletic organizations 



AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 637 

do provide companionship, but they also offer opportu- 
nities for individual study. Yet it must be remembered 
that social activities and diversions have a place in life 
on their own account, quite independent of an avoca- 
tional pursuit. 

These four characteristics, then, may be regarded as 
desirable in an avocational pursuit: (i) appeal to per- 
sonal interest; (2) opportunity for creative or expres- 
sive achievement; (3) appeal to the intellect; and (4) 
possibility of individual pursuit. 

Relation of Avocation to Vocation. — The statement is 
usually made that the vocation and the avocation should 
supplement each other; that when the vocation is of a 
mental nature the avocation should be of a mechanical 
or physical nature ; when the vocation keeps one indoors 
the avocation should take one outdoors, and so on. 
The teacher, the lawyer, or the merchant should, on this 
basis, select an avocation like cabinetmaking, gymnas- 
tics, or golfing, while the farmer, the builder, or the sur- 
veyor should select a literary, scientific, or artistic pur- 
suit as his avocation. 

This supplementary relation between the vocation 
and avocation may be ideal but it cannot be taken as 
the primary criterion for the selection of an avocation. 
This must always be personal inclination. It is desir- 
able, above all things, that the avocation offer an oppor- 
tunity for whole-hearted devotion. Then, if it also con- 
trasts with the vocational pursuit, so much the better, 
but if it falls in a similar line of activity it should still 
be chosen. The teacher of reading may make dra- 
matics his avocation, the teacher of English may be a 
poet, and the teacher of science may gain his highest 
joy from scientific research. A farmer, builder, engi- 



638 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

neer, or business man may pursue a special phase of 
his vocation as his avocation. 

This close relation of avocation to vocation is likely 
to be more advantageous than disadvantageous. It 
may serve as a source of immediate help and inspiration 
in the vocation and furnish additional motive for the 
avocation. The objection that under this condition no 
avocation but only a vocation exists is without force. 
Any absorbing activity that is not of necessity included 
in one's vocation satisfies the requirements of an avoca- 
tional pursuit. 

It may even be argued that to have the vocation and 
avocation fall in unrelated lines of activity is undesira- 
ble. Under this condition the interest engendered in the 
avocation may detract time and attention from the vo- 
cation. This has happened; and while the argument is 
not final it does help to support the conclusion that the 
nature of one's vocation is secondary in determining the 
choice of one's avocation. 

It should be remembered again in this connection that 
an avocation in the sense here used is not the only 
activity through which one gains relief from the strain 
and routine of one's vocation. There are also the so- 
cial, intellectual, and physical diversions which aid in 
maintaining the balance of one's personality. These 
are so varied that they are inherently adapted to appeal 
to all sides of one's nature. Physical exercise is, indeed, 
so important that it must often be given special con- 
sideration. It is only occasionally that one may expect 
to have it taken care of in one's avocation. 

Vocation and avocation touch also on the financial 
side. As a rule, an avocation costs rather than produces 
money. Music, art, and science as avocational pursuits 









AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 639 

are proverbially expensive and one chooses them usually 
with no expectation of financial return. To choose them 
with this end in view would obviously be incongruous 
for it would transfer the activity into the vocational 
field. 

But as an incidental or secondary consideration it is 
not always possible to disconnect avocational activities 
from financial gain. Some activities naturally involve 
financial considerations in their culmination, without 
which they are largely pointless. When a farmer makes 
a phase of his calling an avocational pursuit it is diffi- 
cult for him not to profit thereby, and the test of literary 
achievement, although followed incidentally, is, to some 
extent at least, the salability of the product. Other ac- 
tivities may be similarly involved. The beneficiaries 
may reinvest their gains in the extension of their avoca- 
tional pursuits, but this does not remove the fact that 
they have gained. 

So long as this gain is looked upon as incidental it 
need not professionalize the avocational activity, but it 
brings us face to face with another relation that the avo- 
cation may bear to the vocation. After having gained 
sufficient skill in one's avocation one may make it one's 
vocation or one may fall back upon it temporarily as a 
means of support. Both of these conditions occasionally 
come about. The papers have only recently told us of a 
barber who gained such proficiency in musical composi- 
tion, practised for his enjoyment in leisure hours, that 
he forsook his vocation for it. Plant and animal breed- 
ers occasionally decide to specialize in the lines in which 
they started primarily for recreational purposes, and 
music has often proved a source of income in emergen- 
cies. But this transfer of affections must, in the begin- 



640 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ning at least, be unpremeditated, otherwise the activity 
would have to be looked upon as vocational from the 
start. 

This topic should not be left, however, without em- 
phasizing the desirability of keeping the avocation on an 
amateur basis. It is only on that basis that free, child- 
like, and unalloyed enjoyment can be obtained. Finan- 
cial considerations are always likely to bring in the ele- 
ment of constraint. 

Relation of Avocation to Social Activities. — It should 
be evident by this time that it is not the nature of the 
activity but the spirit in which it is pursued that de- 
termines an avocational pursuit. The avocation may, 
therefore, fall not only within the field of the vocation 
but also within the field of social activities, including all 
four of the subdivisions made above. The social field 
appears to be especially well suited for avocational pur- 
suits. Opportunities for the doing of far-reaching good 
abound, yet relatively few of these have been placed in 
the hands of paid and professional guidance. Plenty of 
room, therefore, is left for volunteer effort. The good 
that may be accomplished is well suited for leaving a 
rich, subjective reward, and all the activities offer op- 
portunities for companionship and social leadership. 

Within the church opportunities for avocational inter- 
ests may be found in the Sunday-school, in missionary 
activities, and in directing young people's societies; in 
civic life, social relief work, playgrounds, adult educa- 
tion, the beautification of the community, and the like 
may occupy one's attention; and in politics the entire 
field in this country is largely on an amateur basis. In 
the home the care and training of children, the furnish- 
ing of the house, the qualities and preparation of food, 



AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 641 

etc., may be raised to avocational interests. Much aid 
in this matter may be obtained from women's clubs, 
which furnish social stimuli and serve as clearing-houses. 

Needs for Avocational Training. — The needs for avo- 
cational training and guidance are both general and 
specific. From the general standpoint it should require 
little argument to show that young people stand in need 
of guidance and training in the choice and pursuit of avo- 
cational activities. Relatively few adults are equipped 
for the spending of leisure hours in a significant and 
elevating manner. As a result, they know no better than 
to spend all their time in a continual and monotonous 
grind or they waste or dissipate the leisure they do have. 
By the age of thirty-five or forty fife has become nar- 
row and uninteresting. Vocational activities have be- 
come largely a matter of routine, their novelties have 
been exhausted, and a basis for an avocational pursuit 
is lacking. 

Pedagogically, the need for avocational training is 
more rather than less urgent than the need for vocational 
training. The conditions of life compel nearly every one 
to choose a vocation, to prepare for it, and to pursue it, 
but they do not similarly compel one to choose, master, 
and follow an avocational pursuit. Consequently, avo- 
cational pursuits worthy of the name usually go by de- 
fault. 

It is especially important that young people be im- 
pressed with the psychological fact that the interests to 
be enjoyed in middle and later life must be developed in 
youth and cultivated at least occasionally throughout 
maturity. Unless this is done, well-nigh insurmount- 
able difficulties are encountered. Interests that are not 
cultivated after they have been developed atrophy and 



642 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

even die. The experience of Darwin is typical. In 
his youth Darwin was fond of poetry and music, but 
when he tried to come back to them after years of inten- 
sive application to scientific research he found that his 
taste for them had vanished. His mind, as he says, had 
become a mere machine for grinding out scientific gen- 
eralizations. 

Ignorant of this fact, young men entering a life career 
frequently say to themselves: "I shall now spend the 
next period of my life in laying up a fortune, and after 
that is obtained I shall lay off and have a good time." 
The outcome is nearly always the same. Not infre- 
quently they succeed measurably well in the former, 
only to learn, when it is too late, that they have left 
within themselves no resources for enjoyment outside of 
their callings. 

Women in the home are exposed to narrowing influ- 
ences even more than men in business. They are under 
great temptation to devote all their time and energy to 
their home and children, neglecting their taste for read- 
ing, art, and social activity, and when their children are 
grown they find themselves with no interest to take the 
place of caring for them. 

The specific needs for avocational training grow out 
of the social and industrial transformation through 
which we are passing. Because of the specialization and 
concentration of industry made possible by the applica- 
tion of the sciences and the invention of labor-saving 
machinery, the division of labor is being carried further 
and further, and in consequence labor is making a pro- 
gressively narrower and narrower appeal to the varied 
powers and impulses of the personality. This is affect- 
ing not only the industries but also commerce and the 



AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 643 

professions. In only a few callings, such as the ministry, 
teaching, and farming, is a reasonable amount of breadth 
still maintained, and even here monotony may be found. 

The point involved in specialized labor is not so much 
that it is narrow in a mechanical sense as that to vast 
numbers of workers it does not furnish opportunity for 
initiative and constructive achievement. All but a few 
are carrying out orders from above. They are following 
directions conceived by some one else and are using their 
own minds for self-direction in but a limited degree. 
In the not far distant past this was very different. Then 
the shoemaker made the entire shoe and the watchmaker 
the entire watch. In this there was room for thought 
and the joy of achievement. 

Furthermore, trained and specialized labor increases 
production, and among the effects of this is, or should be, 
more leisure for the worker. Employers or members of 
their families have long had some leisure in which they 
have, in a measure, cultivated avocational pursuits; and 
the struggle of labor against capital for shorter hours is, in 
part at least, a struggle for the leisure to which the econ- 
omy of production would seem logically to entitle labor. 
With this leisure the life of the " man- with- the-hoe " 
type of laborer might be transformed into the life of a 
gentleman, meaning by this term not the " gentleman of 
leisure" but the man in a democracy who has some time 
and taste for the gentle things of life. But if this ideal 
is to be reached not only leisure but training for leisure 
is necessary. Without this training every one command- 
ing leisure, whether rich or poor, is likely to flounder. 

The need for training in this connection is further 
emphasized by the fact that dissipation on the part of 
employees is rapidly being forbidden by railroad com- 



644 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

panies and other corporations. The Lackawanna Com- 
pany recently issued instructions to its employees that 
contained the following: " Employees in engine, train, 
yard, and station service are prohibited from using their 
time while off duty in a manner that may unfit them 
for the safe, prompt, and efficient performance of their 
respective duties for the company. They are strictly 
enjoined and required to use their time while off duty 
primarily for obtaining ample rest. The use of intoxi- 
cants while on or off duty, or the visiting of saloons or 
places where liquor is sold, incapacitates men for rail- 
road service, and is absolutely prohibited. Any viola- 
tion of this rule by employees in engine, train, yard, or 
station service will be sufficient cause for dismissal.'' 

The School and Avocational Guidance. — In raising the 
question of what may be expected of the school in help- 
ing young people to equip themselves for the effective 
pursuit of such avocational activities as we have de- 
scribed it should be borne in mind that the school is 
only one of several agencies concerned in this matter. 
The responsibility should be shared especially by the 
home and the church; but in the present state of social 
development the school can probably do the most. 

The school can, in the first place, direct the attention oj 
young people to the importance of definite preparation 
for the spending of leisure. Young people now pay little 
or no attention to this matter, mainly because they are 
unaware of its existence. They think much and are told 
much of the need of trained vocational efficiency and of 
being public-spirited citizens, but the matter of recrea- 
tion and unconstrained achievement is allowed to take 
care of itself. As a result, it is usually neglected and 
the person finds himself in middle life high and dry. 



AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 645 

The possibilities of his vocation are exhausted, the few- 
diversions he has now seem superficial, and the interests 
upon which an engaging avocational pursuit might be 
founded are largely atrophied. 

The duty of directing the attention of young people in 
this matter falls primarily to the upper grades, the high 
school, and the college. The high school principal, it 
would seem, occupies the most advantageous position. 
He has the pupils at the most favorable age. Their 
minds are just opening to the larger meanings and values 
of life and they are ripe for instruction. This instruc- 
tion the principal could give nowhere more effectively 
than at the general exercises of the school. 

And while the teachers are engaged in directing the 
attention of young people to avocational pursuits let 
them aim also to cultivate a taste for the simple and 
inexpensive pleasures. The life-giving value of a diver- 
sion is not necessarily proportional to its cost or to the 
glare and glitter by which it is accompanied. A view 
of the lake from the hilltop, a walk or drive through the 
country, an outing in the woods, the reading of the even- 
ing paper, the writing of a friendly letter, and a con- 
templation of the stars at night are among the pleasures 
that never pall and never grow old. 

Closely related to the choice of an avocation is the 
criticism that the interests which the school so laboriously 
cultivates are not permanent and that, therefore, the 
effects of education are lost. Pupils study and, as a 
rule, are interested in literature, art, history, science, 
and philosophy while in school, but few keep up their 
interests when out of school. Like the educated Indian, 
they return to the blanket. 

In meeting this criticism it may be said, to begin with, 



646 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

that by no means all of the educative effects of a study 
are lost if an active interest in the study is not main- 
tained after school life. The liberalizing and socializing 
values, once obtained, are largely permanent; and the 
same may be said of mental discipline, properly con- 
ceived. 

In the second place, it should be observed that there is 
a vast difference between school life and after-life in the 
opportunity for cultivating a large variety of interests. 
It is the business of a student in school to cultivate a 
broad range of interests in order that he may find himself 
and gain perspective and social interest, but in after-life 
the pursuit of a specific vocation becomes his chief con- 
cern. This necessarily consumes the major portion of 
his time and makes it impossible for him to keep alive 
all the interests he cultivated in school. 

Thirdly, we should realize that the vocation should, 
and usually does, keep alive some of one's higher inter- 
ests. It will surely do this if it can be properly chosen. 
The solution regarding the interests not taken care of 
by the vocation is to keep alive the choicest ones by 
means of one or two avocational activities. The re- 
mainder may occasionally serve as diversions, but in the 
main they must, as active interests, be allowed to sub- 
side. In regard to them we may say with James: "Not 
that I would not, if I could, be both handsome and fat 
and well dressed and a great athlete, and make a million 
dollars a year, be a wit, a bon-vivant, and a lady-killer as 
well as a philosopher; a philanthropist, a statesman, a 
warrior, and African explorer as well as a tone 'poet' 
and a saint. But the thing is simply impossible. " 

But in this matter of diversions and avocations the 
school can do more than direct attention; it can also lead 



AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 647 

the way. It can do this especially through the clubs 
and organizations of the students. 

The clubs of the school, in addition to their other 
functions, may be regarded as veritable training grounds 
for the intellectual and aesthetic diversions and avoca- 
tions. It should be their aim to put into practice in a 
free and enjoyable way the activities of the various de- 
partments. The physics club may develop a permanent 
interest in photography; the biological club may teach 
the language of the birds and the flowers; the social- 
science club may develop momentum in social activities; 
the German club may impart a mastery over the songs 
and literature of Germany; the dramatic club may foster 
the drama; the art club may develop skill with the brush 
or pencil, and so on; while the literary and debating 
societies, in addition to their specific activities, may 
serve as clearing-houses for all the clubs. 

The number of clubs running in any one year would 
depend both on the size of the school and the opportu- 
nity for gaining competent leadership. A large school 
could naturally support more clubs than a small one. 
The leadership would most likely come from the faculty, 
but it might also come from the home. Here is a point 
where the home and the school, as well as other social 
forces and the school, might often work together. . 

In order to conserve the energy of both the teachers 
and the pupils, the teachers might take turns from year 
to year in directing clubs along their own lines of interest. 
Especial care would have to be taken to conserve the 
energies of the pupils. No pupil should be allowed to 
attend too many clubs in any one year. He can try him- 
self out in successive years. Neither should the teach- 
ers forget that the pupils should be led clearly to realize 



648 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

that the clubs, as well as being immediately enjoyable, 
are opportunities for cultivating tastes and activities 
that may be carried into after-life. 

The development of permanent interests in athletic 
activities rests largely with athletic associations. Inter- 
est in athletics touches especially closely the relation of 
the school to health and the establishment of health 
habits. It is now expected that the health of pupils 
instead of being enfeebled should improve with progress 
through the school, and that definite and lasting habits 
and ideals for the maintenance of health become estab- 
lished by the time the student leaves the high school. 

In this matter it appears to be necessary to make 
a distinction between physical education and physical 
exercise. The former has as its function the shaping 
of the form and bearing of the body and the latter the 
maintenance of physical buoyancy and vigor. One be- 
longs to the realm of work and the other to the realm of 
play. The school has a primary obligation toward both, 
but its obligation toward the latter is the more far- 
reaching. The body and bearing once formed may be 
maintained through habit or a minimum of attention, 
but exercise is needed continually throughout life. 

The fact that the maintenance of health through ex- 
ercise is a perpetual problem places the duty upon the 
school of equipping young people with physical diver- 
sions that may be carried through life. The pupils 
should be made clearly aware of the need of the diver- 
sion and should be led consciously to prepare for it. 

The development of physical diversions that will ac- 
tually be carried into life presents peculiar difficulties. 
This is because people differ greatly in the amount of 
exercise they require and because individuals will not for 



AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 649 

any considerable length of time follow systematic courses 
of exercise by themselves. 

The fact that people will not exercise regularly by 
themselves makes it necessary that the social factor 
be included in physical diversions whenever possible. 
Plays and games must be socialized. Unless this is done 
they are not likely to be long effective. The revival of 
folk-dances is significant in this connection, but tennis, 
croquet, baseball, and the like also require social co- 
operation; and walking, driving, rowing, swimming, and 
skating may easily be made social. Municipal play- 
grounds and amusement halls, in sufficient number for 
adults no less than for children, would go far in solving 
this problem. Children's playgrounds should adopt it 
as one of their explicit functions to develop skill in games 
that may be adopted as permanent diversions. But, to 
achieve this end, games in which adults take an interest, 
such as tennis, baseball, and water sports, will have to be 
extensively substituted for the childish games that now 
monopolize the arena. 

In all this the difference in the amount and kind of 
exercise needed by individuals should receive conscious 
consideration. Whereas, one needs one hour or more of 
vigorous exercise in the open air every day to keep in 
trim, another may require much lighter exercise and per- 
haps only an hour or two a week. If he takes more he 
becomes exhausted and will actually have his enjoy- 
ment and efficiency lowered. 

A vital point in developing and practising physical 
diversions is the fact that the attention should always 
be centred primarily on the activity or the achievement 
and not on the profit of the exercise itself. Play and not 
work should be the dominating attitude. It is only 



650 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

when the spirit of play dominates the mind that care is 
relegated to the background and that depth of breath- 
ing, fulness of heart-beat, and freedom of activity are 
achieved. Health, like pleasure, is delusive, being gained 
best by indirection. It is this principle that demands 
the classification of the physical exercises among the 
diversions. 

Another opportunity through which the school may 
exert an elevating influence on the choice of diversions 
and avocations is the content and method of instruction. 
Young people cannot be expected extensively to choose 
art, literature, or science as recreative pursuits unless the 
school succeeds in enlisting their interest in these sub- 
jects, and the school cannot hope to enlist this interest 
without significant and contentful subject-matter that 
is taught in a meaningful and appreciative manner. 

We are still aiming too much for the form and the 
symbol and not enough for the content and function in 
our teaching. This not only kills the interest in the 
thing taught but also stupefies the method of teaching. 
It is this that accounts in a large measure for the fact 
that many students in the high school, the elementary 
school, and the college are pleased to have done with 
many of their studies and hope never to be obliged to 
turn to them again. 

Studies in school should be pursued in the same spirit 
in which they are meant to be pursued in life. This 
holds for all studies, but is particularly true for music, 
art, and literature, which form the main body of the 
aesthetic diversions and avocations. It is the primary 
function of these subjects to entertain, to inspire, and to 
add to the richness of life, and these should be the ends 
aimed for in school. The method of study should be at- 



AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 651 

tuned to harmonize with these ends. The spirit of the 
classroom should be one of sympathy and co-operation, 
the teacher and the pupils contributing and appreciating 
in turn. If the course is one in content, the attention 
should always be primarily on the content, formal mat- 
ters being brought in only to the extent that they are 
needed to make the content clear. Only in this way can 
a deep and permanent interest, one likely to be carried 
over into life, be developed. True, the teacher must be 
one who knows the goals of instruction and who him- 
self profoundly appreciates what he is teaching, but this 
is true of all teachers who make a success of their work. 

Let no one jump to the hasty conclusion either that 
the spirit of delight is incompatible with hard work or 
with the invocation of the concept of duty. A joyful 
end is the very kind that will elicit strenuous effort, pro- 
vided only that the effort is relevant to the end. 

That aesthetic appreciation of the cultivated kind pre- 
supposes hard work is undeniable, and young people 
should be led to realize this fact early in their educa- 
tional career. The masters in literature, art, and music 
cannot be appreciated through casual attention. They 
must be studied, and only after careful study is the door 
of ready appreciation opened. 

This study must not only include underlying princi- 
ples and historical relationships, but also practice in the 
technic. Without having practised with a pen, brush, 
voice, or musical instrument, one cannot fully appreci- 
ate literature, art, and music. Like other educational 
ends, this appreciation involves both impression and 
expression. 

Literature is now granted about as much time in 
courses of study as can be afforded for it. It is studied 



652 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

both from the contentful and the historical standpoint 
and if it is not chosen often enough as a diversion or 
avocation, the fault must be ascribed to those who 
teach it. But the same cannot be said of art and music. 
These subjects have only begun to be studied from the 
contentful side in elementary and high schools. The 
drawing work in these schools should be accompanied 
by, or culminate in, the systematic study of painting, 
sculpture, and architecture, now readily done through 
copies, and the music work should lead to an acquain- 
tance with the masterpieces of music. Here the player- 
piano, Victrola, and other devices may serve as means 
of presentation. With these artificial aids young people 
may become acquainted with the masters and master- 
pieces of painting, sculpture, and music quite as readily 
as with the masters and masterpieces of literature. 

The principles that must be observed in securing the 
recreative values of the aesthetic subjects apply also to 
the natural and the social sciences. In these subjects, 
as in others, the content itself must be aimed for if a 
sympathetic attitude toward them is to be developed. 
The social sciences should interpret human institutions, 
having in view both practical and social ends, while the 
natural sciences should perform a similar service in re- 
spect to the phenomena of nature. Both groups should 
be made to connect vitally with the immediate environ- 
ment of the student. History should mean the home 
locality with its pioneers and heroes, as well as Harper's 
Ferry and John Brown; botany should mean the weeds 
and grasses in the back yard as well as microscopes and 
herbariums, and so on. But these results are now not 
often achieved. Students take economics and sociology, 
but of the actual conditions of our industrial, commer- 



AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 653 

cial, and social life they often learn little. Physics in 
most high schools is still a matter of accurate measure- 
ment and applied mathematics, with seldom a view be- 
yond the classroom and laboratory, while botany and 
zoology are studied in an equally schematic and tech- 
nical way. 

The natural sciences in particular are rich in recrea- 
tive content that the school can help to reveal. The 
endless varieties of plants and animals may go quite un- 
noticed without the systematic and appreciative insight 
that may be given by the school; and the person who 
knows the stars and the planets, who understands their 
movements, and who is acquainted with the constella- 
tions and their associated myths has a source of delight 
that he would not readily exchange. And what would a 
person with a real and vital knowledge of physical, chem- 
ical, and geological phenomena take in exchange for 
what these add to the appreciation of the world in which 
he lives? 

These three avenues, then, are open to the school for 
developing diversions and avocations on a plane com- 
mensurate with human endowment: (i) the school may 
direct the attention of young people to the character 
and importance of these activities and to the necessity 
of preparing for them; (2) it may help them to get a 
foretaste of these activities through the club life of 
the school; and (3) it may order its subject-matter and 
methods of instruction so that vital and sustained inter- 
ests will be developed. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

CO-OPERATION IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH 

James Fleming Hosic, Ph.M. 
professor of english, chicago normal college 

The Importance of Co-operation. — The subject of co- 
operation in teaching the use of the vernacular has not 
received the attention it deserves. Mastery of the na- 
tional language is easily the most important attainment 
which it is the business of the school to bring about. 
The growth of the mind and the power to press any life 
purpose to a successful outcome are alike dependent 
upon it. But, as I shall presently show, unless progress 
in learning to speak, to write, and to read correctly and 
effectively is enabled by the conduct of the work of every 
class in the school, the good offices of the English teacher 
will result in but meagre fruitage. 

Difficulty of Learning Language. — If any are unim- 
pressed with the importance of co-operation they have 
but to reflect upon the character of the processes which 
the learning of language involves. These constitute a 
group of habits at once the most significant and the 
most difficult to establish of all those which make up the 
human personality. So intimate is the relation between 
speech and character that Charles Lamb was, no doubt, 
justified in saying that he could judge of a man's culture 
and intellectual force by means of a few moments' con- 
versation with him while waiting under a friendly door- 

654 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH 655 

way during a passing shower. The adjustments, on the 
other hand, which speech and writing require far exceed 
in delicacy and complexity those demanded by any other 
aspect of human behavior. Consider what happens when 
an idea comes into the mind, sets up the appropriate 
motor response, and is expressed in a series of articu- 
late sounds, in the making of which the whole vocal 
organism is called into rapid action, the tongue, lips, and 
throat assuming position after position with lightning 
rapidity and with wonderful accuracy. Even more 
marvellous is the process of reading aloud from the 
printed book, as Dearborn, Huey, and others have re- 
cently set forth. 

Consider now that these language adjustments begin 
in early infancy, are operative during every waking hour, 
and have fairly established themselves by the time a 
child enters the high school. If the pupil then speaks 
and writes and reads well, it is necessary only that the 
new environment foster a growth well begun, not hinder 
it or destroy it. If, however, the entering student has 
made small progress in language or has accumulated a 
stock of bad practices, to save him will require the united 
efforts of all the teachers he may meet. How profoundly 
true this is appears in the doctrine, now widely accepted, 
that language habits are special, not general; that pro- 
ficiency in a given situation gives no positive assurance 
that we shall find it in another. To illustrate from our 
common experience, pupils often express themselves 
well in the English classroom and very badly elsewhere. 
Hence it is in a sense true that unless all instructors 
teach English it is nearly useless for any to do so. For 
this reason co-operation deserves our most serious con- 
sideration. 



656 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



OBSTACLES TO BE OVERCOME 

By " co-operation in English" we mean the working 
together of all the teachers of a school to secure, on the 
part of their students, the correct and effective use of 
oral and written expression. We have glanced at the 
necessity of this; let us now consider with some care the 
difficulties which any plan of co-operation will involve. 

i. Lack of Uniform Standards. — There can be no 
progress in co-operating in English teaching so long 
as some departments support by example, or at best 
tolerate, language which others condemn, or — what is 
equally destructive — offer no positive stimulus to accu- 
rate and adequate expression in speech and in writing. 
It may be that the teacher of English is overprecise, a 
purist, and prizes too little the plain .and straightforward 
expression of the results of observation and thought. It 
may be that the teacher of science prides himself on his 
freedom from conventionality and has scant respect for 
good usage. It is, at any rate, more than likely that each 
goes his own way, quite unfamiliar with the attitude of 
the other, while the pupil finds it easy to choose the path 
of least resistance. 

Evil of Overspecialization. — One reason for such a 
state is the overspecialization of students in the univer- 
sities and of teachers in the high schools. It is now pos- 
sible for young men and young women to secure the 
bachelors degree, and with it a recommendation to a 
high school position, without adequate training in the 
arts, acquaintance with the humanities, or grounding in 
the sciences, as the case may be. The result is a high 
school course made up of a series of unrelated units and 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH 657 

high school instruction in which each department not 
only fails to support the others but may even nullify their 
efforts. The teacher who knows neither science nor in- 
dustrial art will make small headway in training a class 
to express their live interests, while the teachers of those 
subjects who know little English constantly offend good 
taste in language and signally fail to complete the train- 
ing which the English teacher has begun. 

All Teachers Should Be Trained in English. — A 
strong reaction against a one-sided preparation, which 
can only result in mutual lack of sympathy and support, 
and which tends to disintegrate the life of the pupil in- 
stead of unifying and harmonizing it, has already set in. 
It may be desirable to require each teacher in the large 
schools to give instruction in at least two departments in 
order to secure the necessary breadth and catholicity of 
interest. From the numerous suggestions which have 
come to my notice I quote the following, which is part of 
a series of resolutions presented by a special committee 
to the Conference of High Schools with the University 
of Illinois in November, 191 2. l 

All candidates for high school teaching positions should have 
work in English extending through at least two years, with 
emphasis upon oral and written composition. The committee 
is impelled to make this recommendation because of the defi- 
ciencies in English that so frequently characterize high school 
teachers. The committee recognizes, however, that even the 
best technical training in English composition will not alone 
suffice to accomplish the desired results. In addition to this, 
every effort should be made in all classes to develop adequate 
habits of clear and concise expression and to encourage effective 

1 The committee was composed of the following: L. C. Lord, Theodore 
Kemp, W. C. Bagley, H. B. Wilson, and W. R. Spurrier, chairman. 
See the English Journal, for February, 19 13, p. 135. 



658 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

standards of diction, syntax, and logical organization. We 
recommend that the conference urge upon college and univer- 
sity authorities the importance of emphasizing this phase of 
education in all classes in which intending high school teachers 
are enrolled. 

The last recommendation is an interesting confirma- 
tion of the necessity of co-operation in English even in 
the college. 

2. Absence of Common Aims. — But granting that the 
teachers of a school have been broadly and adequately 
prepared and that there exists among them reasonable 
agreement as to what standards of expression in language 
should be set up, difficulties will remain. Prominent 
among these is that of setting up common aims. Over-; 
specialization is the chief stumbling-block here also. 
The teacher of physics wants to make scientists and the 
teacher of English wants to make novelists, while both 
should be eager to make men. Neither has time, or will 
take it, to visit the classes of the other, and no com- 
mon interests are discovered. Moreover, co-operation is 
very generally viewed as one-sided. It is supposed to 
be a device for giving English a large place in the pro- 
gramme or, on the other hand, a means by which teach- 
ers of other subjects may unload their manuscripts and 
escape the grind of correcting them. These objections 
must first be removed before the necessary willingness 
to co-operate can be secured. 

English and Other Studies. — It is not the business of 
the science teacher to give instruction in the principles 
of English composition. That subject has its technic, 
and instruction in the technic of composition requires 
skill born of experience as in the case of any other sort 
of instruction. It will be sufficient if the science teacher 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH 659 

will but require his pupils to employ to the full whatever 
command of language they possess. So far as correct- 
ness is concerned, it is certainly true that high school 
pupils rarely make mistakes out of ignorance. They 
know what is right but fail to choose it. This all 
teachers must insist that they do and, like Goldsmith's 
village preacher, practise it themselves. Teachers in 
departments other than English need not, then, fear 
encroachment, for it is demanded only that they re- 
quire the pupils to use the knowledge they have. 

This doctrine may, however, be too narrowly inter- 
preted. Many proceed on the supposition that co-opera- 
tion in English means merely correcting bad grammar, 
bad pronunciation, and bad spelling, with the possible 
addition of insistence on neat manuscript. These are cer- 
tainly desiderata. " These ought ye to have done and 
not to have left the other undone." Language is almost 
identical with thought. Meagreness, confusion, and in- 
exactness of expression are fairly indicative of like quali- 
ties of idea. When all is said that can be said for those 
who think by means of images, attitudes, or what-not, 
the fact remains that almost all of our thinking is done 
with words. Hence, when the teacher of geometry in- 
sists on crystal clearness of statement, he is wisely mak- 
ing sure that the pupil has grasped the idea; when the 
teacher of history requires the evidence on a point to be 
properly arranged and adequately set forth he is in re- 
ality bringing the individual and the class to a complete 
consciousness of the facts involved, is assuring full knowl- 
edge where half knowledge lurked before. As soon as all 
teachers understand this and act accordingly, our prob- 
lem will be practically solved. As it is now, we divine 
what is passing in the pupil's mind, supply the words 



660 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

which he cannot find, and hasten on, with a resulting 
lack of thoroughness which is the most crying weakness 
of our schools. A few things properly mastered, a few 
steps carefully taken, would result in more knowledge 
and better training than we now secure by our hurried 
attempt to orient the boy in his teens in all the formu- 
lated and predigested experience of the race. And there 
is no more efficient means of assimilation and mastery 
than complete, accurate, and adequate expression in 
speech and writing. Hence the teacher of English should 
enforce a few simple principles of composition that will 
enable the pupil to plan and execute an oral report or a 
paper in history or in science, and the teachers of those 
subjects should aid the pupil to secure such a grasp of 
the subject-matter as will make such reports and papers 
possible. 

3. Bad Working Conditions. — But quite enough has 
been said about teachers. They are unable, however 
willing, to solve the problem alone. School officers and 
administrators must provide the necessary conditions. 
Suppose the English teacher meets a class of forty pupils 
each period of the school day. This is a situation some- 
what worse than the average, but it is by no means un- 
known. How, in that case, will he give sympathetic 
attention to the interests of his pupils so that their prac- 
tice in speaking and writing may react favorably on their 
work in other classes? How will he attend carefully to 
the individual in order that his grasp of principles may 
be assured? How will he retain sufficient energy to con- 
sult with his colleagues and devise plans of assault on 
particularly stubborn fastnesses of metropolitan polyglot 
or rural patois? We write a course of study for the 
English teacher and crowd it with literary masterpieces 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH 661 

— thought important for those who will attend college. 
Then we demand more than twice as much work of him 
as he can possibly do well, and wonder why he does not 
succeed in vanquishing, single-handed, the foes of clear 
thinking and correct and clear expression which have 
been intrenched for years and which can now command 
aid and succor from all sides during every waking hour. 

As for teachers of other subjects, while they are not so 
grievously overburdened, yet they, too, are often under 
the necessity of hurrying through a heavy course, with 
too many pupils to be able to think of the possibility of 
dividing with some one else responsibility for mastery of 
the vernacular. 

Co-operation a Problem of Economics. — Ultimately 
the problem of co-operation is one for the principal, the 
superintendent, and the school board. It is primarily a 
question of economics. The task of providing a people's 
college in every town and section, to which the humblest 
may freely go and in which he may receive instruc- 
tion in almost every branch of human knowledge and 
training in every art known to man, is greater than is 
generally realized. To make our already large invest- 
ment pay, we must more than double it. A fair ques- 
tion may be raised as to whether we are justified in 
diverting large sums for the purchase of equipment to 
turn out a few would-be engineers, for example, when we 
do not provide adequately for training all in the funda- 
mental arts of life. At all events, it will require as much 
zeal and pride and generous outlay to secure notable re- 
sults in English as in moulding and turning, and the 
sooner this is realized the sooner we shall get results. 

The Principal Must Lead and Direct. — In a given 
school, then, co-operation in English must be brought 



662 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

about by the principal. He alone can see the problem 
from all sides; he alone is free, or ought to be, from pre- 
dilection for one activity or interest; he should see his 
boys and girls as developing beings with whole, undi- 
vided lives; he is in a position not only to institute plans, 
but to see that they are carried out and to judge of the 
results. Wherever any measure of success in co-opera- 
tion has been secured, the principal has been the chief 
guiding force. 

SUCCESSFUL PLANS 

This brings us to the point where we can speak briefly 
of a few successful plans. Most notable, perhaps, is 
that now in operation in the Cicero Township High 
School near Chicago, 111. This is a school in an indus- 
trial community. The parents are largely of foreign 
birth and not well-to-do. The pupils enter high school 
as much in need of training in the vernacular as any that 
can be found. What Principal Church is doing here will 
be done elsewhere— as soon as the importance of it is 
realized. 

Mr. Church recognized at the outset the economic 
aspect of the problem and began reform by inducing 
his board to supply him with additional teachers. He 
has thus reduced the number of pupils assigned to a 
teacher of English to sixty. These teachers are on duty 
in their classrooms throughout the school day and after- 
ward, to deal with individuals and to discuss their oral 
and written work with them. The next step was to 
secure unanimity of effort in certain specific matters. 
This was attained by having the English teachers pre- 
pare a brief statement as to what other teachers might 
do to enforce the instruction they were giving; as, for 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH 663 

example, the correcting of grammatical errors, the use, 
when appropriate, of full sentences, etc. Eventually it 
was found desirable to issue a monthly bulletin by means 
of which each teacher might know what instruction in 
English was being given and might demand that it be 
observed in his recitations. It was agreed that all de- 
partments should keep a separate and distinct record 
of the quality of the English used by each pupil and 
that the average of such marks should constitute twenty- 
rive per cent of the composition grade given to the pupil 
at the end of the semester. 

The effect is described by competent observers as 
wonderful. The entire school is pervaded by an at- 
mosphere of good English, and the performance of the 
pupils, coming as they do from homes of little culture, 
is comparable to that which may be found in the small 
high-grade private school. 

Another typical example of successful co-operation is 
to be found in the Boston High School of Commerce. 
The principal, Mr. O. C. Gallagher, describes the plan as 
follows : l 



To keep the pupils on the watch for accurate, effective, and 
smooth composition in all their work, they were informed that at 
frequent, though unstated, intervals their papers in other sub- 
jects would be corrected by their English teachers to ascertain 
their observance of the principles taught in the English classes. 
The marks thus obtained are entered upon the regular compo- 
sition work, and unsatisfactory papers are revised or rewritten 
— the same as unsatisfactory themes. In addition, teachers of 
other subjects are urged to send batches of papers whenever 
pupils seem to be growing careless — a condition that often pre- 

1 See Leaflet No. 67, New England Association of Teachers of English, 
Secretary, F. W. C. Hersey, Cambridge, Mass. 



664 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

vails immediately after the correction of sets of papers in sub- 
jects other than English. 

The teacher of the other subject demands that the work be 
clear and substantially correct in spelling, punctuation, and sen- 
tence structure. Failing to secure the first, he lowers the pupil's 
mark and, at his option, demands revision; failing to secure the 
second, he withholds all credit until the work is presented in a 
satisfactory form. The teacher of English insists that every 
piece of writing shall be regarded as an English theme to be cor- 
rected, revised, and rewritten and to count in the making up of 
the mark in English. The collection of papers at unexpected 
moments convinces most pupils of the unwisdom of taking 
chances, for, even if the English teacher fails to collect a set, the 
teacher of the other subject is likely to send him any piece of 
slipshod work. 

Again, a conscientious attempt is made to teach pupils how to 
answer questions in other subjects. We correlate the English 
work in the first year with history; in the second with commer- 
cial geography; in the third with local industries and civil govern- 
ment; in the fourth with business law and economics. By draw- 
ing upon these branches for occasional subjects, and correcting 
the themes orally for sentence structure, unity, mass, and co- 
herence, we try to train the pupils to bear in mind the principles 
of English while their attention is focussed upon another subject. 
Similarly, in connection with science, descriptions of apparatus 
and expositions of experiments are required, and the teacher of 
science is consulted as to the adequacy of the productions from 
a technical standpoint. With foreign languages the English 
department has found most need for co-operation in drill upon 
points of grammar as they are taken up in German and in French. 

Besides "corrective" co-operation, there is such a thing as 
"■'preventive or anticipating" co-operation, which is quite as 
important as the other. Since most teachers are interested in 
English as a means rather than as an end, the use of English 
must be made effective in recitation as well as in writing. Sev- 
eral subjects taken up in the first year of a secondary school lend 
themselves readily to such drill, especially history and elementary 
science. After consultation between the teacher of English and 
the teacher of history, the history text-book may be taken up 
in the English class and the pupil taught how to make his En- 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH 665 

glish do the work that the author tried to have his do. What 
has the author aimed at? Did he hit it? Why? How? This 
brings the pupil to the outline; he must get his sights in line. 
Then the discharge — oral delivery. The class watch as mark- 
ers, criticise the sighting, aiming, line of flight, and the hit. The 
aim is thus upon the English essentials of unity and coherence, 
in whole composition, paragraphs, and sentences. 

The result is easier work for the teacher of history, for the 
teacher of English, and for the pupils, since the work in the En- 
glish class is "a practical job." The pupils can measure the 
success of their effort in one class by their achievement in the 
other. 

Various Plans of Co-operation. — Reports from several 
other schools embody some of these ideas and suggest a 
number in addition. One of the most striking is that of 
keeping pupils on probation in English throughout the 
course. Delinquents who have been warned and who 
fail to improve are remanded to the English department 
for such further training as seems necessary. This may 
result in the establishing of a sort of hospital squad. 
Naturally, pupils wish to get out of the hospital as soon 
as they can. Sometimes it is desirable to require those 
who persist in making mistakes in externals, such as 
spelling, to take a course in typewriting. This is a very 
effective remedy. Again, certain teachers or departments 
find it possible to employ the same subject-matter for 
parts of their courses. Science note-books are made 
the basis of studies in sentence structure in the English 
class, pupils engaged in shop work are taught how to 
organize notes on their projects in the form of analytical 
outlines, etc. The outside reading of the pupils is some- 
times directed to lists of books which have been made up 
by all departments in conference, and care is exercised 
that only a reasonable amount of collateral reading shall 



666 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

be required of any pupil. Or, again, the amount and 
distribution of written work is determined and the form 
of note-books agreed upon. Of great importance is the 
compiling of a standard guide to the preparation and 
correction of manuscripts, which should reflect the prac- 
tice of good publishers and which should be in the hands 
of all teachers and pupils and be consistently adhered 
to. It goes without saying that teachers of foreign 
languages should, without fail, insist upon correct En- 
glish idiom in translation. 

Methods of Grading. — Various attempts have been 
made to work out a practicable method of grading so 
that due account may be taken of the value of substance 
on the one hand and externals of form on the other. 
Some years ago Mr. G. H. Browne, head master of a 
preparatory school in Cambridge, Mass., established in 
his institution the custom of dual marking by means of a 
" numerator" and a " denominator." The mark above 
the line was to stand for substance in all papers, including 
those for the English teacher, while the mark below the 
line was to indicate excellence in " mother tongue," that 
is, spelling, etc. Marks of the latter sort were sent in by 
all teachers, averaged, and reported to the parents. The 
effect is said to have been immediate and gratifying. 
Recently the practice of holding occasional conferences 
at which a few papers are examined, corrected, and 
graded by members from all departments has been grow- 
ing in favor. The participation in this work of teachers 
from the grammar grades is of great value. Marking 
has been further systematized in a few cases by the 
working out of some sort of scale after the general plan 
of that invented by Professors Thorndike and Hillegas. 
These conferences are necessary, and may be made the 



THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH 667 

means of unifying and co-ordinating the activities of the 
different departments of a school to a remarkable degree. 

To summarize, co-operation in English composition, 
to be successful, must be organized and administered by 
the head of the school for the good of all. This will in- 
volve the setting up of common aims and the establish- 
ment of suitable working conditions. Instruction in the 
technic of speaking and writing should be regarded as 
the work of the teacher of English. Teachers of other 
subjects should refuse to accept oral reports or written 
papers which are below the standards agreed upon. If 
the delinquent student fails to repair his deficiency, he 
should be reported to the principal and sent to the 
English department for further training. In matters of 
substance, particularly clearness and completeness, the 
teacher of each subject should point out the weakness, 
cause it to be removed, and apportion credit to the paper 
in accordance with the degree of success attained. By 
means of class visitation and conference, teachers of 
English and teachers of other subjects should seek to 
combine their efforts so as to accomplish the most effec- 
tive training of the student in the arts of study and of 
expression with the greatest economy of his time and 
the most consistent unifying of his life. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 

MEDICAL SUPERVISION, SCHOOL SANITATION, HYGIENE 
OF INSTRUCTION 

Louis W. Rapeer, Ph.D. 

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION, NEW YORK TRAINING 
SCHOOL FOR TEACHERS 

Medical Sociology. — The principal problems of life set 
the problems for education, and one of the serious prob- 
lems of individual and social life is the maintenance of 
good health. How serious the problem is for individ- 
ual and nation probably very few people realize. Low- 
ered vitality, sickness, physical defects, operations, and 
death are common enough, but the traditions of the an- 
cients are still too much with us, and we are prone to 
accept anything less than "life more abundant" in a 
fatalistic manner, as the Mohammedan does his bad 
roads. It is quite time that our people begin to learn 
from their community leaders, our prospective high 
school graduates, that it is just as possible to get con- 
trol of the forces of nature which mould human life as 
it is to control, through breeding, cultivation, and pro- 
tection, our domestic animals and plants, and, further- 
more, that this new century of science is making pos- 
sible, for those who will work for it, a finer type of 

668 



THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 669 

human being with much greater natural vigor, an aver- 
age term of life much longer than the present, and an 
enormous decrease of sickness, physical defects, wasted 
expenditures, and premature death. 

Eugenics. — The fundamental determinants of social 
progress are those of nature and nurture — controlling the 
admissions to the life of society and providing adequate 
environmental conditions for the greatest development 
of the membership so established. The world has made 
wonderful progress in the control of plant and animal 
life; our power over animate and inanimate nature seems 
almost deistic; man can to-day remodel and shape the 
world very largely as he likes; but over himself, the high- 
est type of animal life, he has as yet gained little positive 
control. The world is rilled with the unfit of all descrip- 
tions — feeble-minded, idiots, mentally backward, insane, 
antisocial and criminal, deaf, blind, and mute, natural 
paupers, physical defectives, and the great host of hered- 
itary deviates below a normal humanity who have been 
denied the first great right of the individual to be well 
born. As the great evolutionist, Wallace, points out 
in his recent volume, a very large proportion of these 
''undesirable citizens" are not so much the results of 
heredity as of our extremely defective social environ- 
ment: 

" Taking account of these various groups of un- 
doubted facts, many of which are so gross, so terrible, 
that they cannot be overstated, it is not too much to 
say that our whole system of society is rotten from top 
to bottom, and the social environment as a whole, in 
relation to our possibilities and our claims, is the worst 
that the world has ever seen." l 

l " Social Environment and Moral Progress," p. 169. 



670 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

He urges that "Nature — or the Universal Mind — has 
not failed or bungled our world so completely as to re- 
quire the weak and ignorant efforts of the eugenists to 
set it right, while leaving the great fundamental causes 
of all existing social evils absolutely untouched. Let 
them devote their energies to purifying this whitened 
sepulchre of destitution and ignorance and the benefi- 
cent laws of human nature will themselves bring about 
the physical, intellectual, and moral advancement of our 
race." Social reform, he says, will be followed by ade- 
quate and natural feminine selection of the fittest. 

Doctor Davenport of this country, on the other hand, 
strongly emphasizes the hereditary factor and shows in 
his book on " Heredity in Relation to Eugenics" and the 
various bulletins of the Eugenics Record Office, Cold 
Spring Harbor, Long Island, N. Y., that a large share of 
the mental and physical defectiveness of human beings 
is primarily due to the inheritance of traits which have 
been passed down through families from primitive, pre- 
human defectives. The genealogy of the Jukes and the 
Ishmaelites on the one side and of the Edwards and 
Bankers on the other, as well as of a growing multitude 
of other families, reveal distinctly the hereditary factors 
in national degeneracy and national greatness. Daven- 
port names forty-one different classes of traits which are 
demonstrably inheritable, and the number is constantly 
growing. The two points of view are differences of 
emphasis on what are the first steps in social progress. 
Both are sound when taken together. 

We hardly need the exact methods of science to dem- 
onstrate the inheritability of most of the characteris- 
tics of human beings. The common expressions, "the 
image of his father," mother, great-grandparent, "takes 



THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 671 

after his" specific ancestors, "gets that from" his 
mother, father, etc., and the many folk traditions about 
marrying cousins, and the like, demonstrate a more or 
less vague understanding of the forces of heredity in 
human beings, working as they do before the eyes and 
under the guidance of every farmer and stock-breeder. 
And, furthermore, the many State legislatures that are 
rapidly, and with relatively little or very inadequate 
investigation, placing various eugenic laws on the statute 
books, such as medical regulation of marriage and the 
segregation and the sterilization of certain types of the 
unfit, indicate that we have already begun a vigorous 
movement for the improvement of the inborn qualities 
of humanity. Blanket laws such as the prohibition of 
marriage between first cousins, of a mental defective to a 
normal person, and the like, will be modified; investiga- 
tions of heredity in the State and nation will be made; 
and accurate genealogical census records, eugenic special- 
ists for expert guidance, and the education of the youth 
in the biological and social principles and importance of 
proper matings will all soon come about. 

Heredity and the High Schools. — Because they can- 
not exercise eugenic control over their membership, the 
pupils, but must take them as they come, with their 
infinite variety from top to bottom in many traits, the 
educators and public school lawmakers have in the past 
vastly overemphasized the factor of environment and of 
schooling, following the lead, to some extent, of Ward, 
Odin, and Wallace. They will, in the future, give wiser 
emphasis to the factor of heredity. The truth for the 
schools lies in the emphasis of both factors — in education 
along the lines of the improvement of the racial stock by 
scientific and reasonable control of parentage and by 



672 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

a vastly extended improvement of the conditions and 
means of living and development for all people. 

The schools have their naturally bright, medium, 
dull, and mentally defective children. They have their 
physical longs and shorts of a thousand different types. 
They have retardation, elimination, non-promotion, 
incorrigibility, motor-minded, abstract-minded, social 
and non- or anti-social pupils, inheritedly predisposed 
toward a multitude of weaknesses and diseases which 
may easily lead to elimination, backwardness, failure, 
or death by the slightest encouragement of bad envi- 
ronmental conditions. With greater eugenic control 
by society, with ampler physical and psychological tests 
and standards, with a knowledge of each pupil's here- 
ditary predispositions, surely we have for the schools 
an instrument of incalculable value in promoting in- 
dividuality and genuine socialization of our prospective 
citizens. 

What we can do in the high schools will depend 
largely upon our knowledge of the scientific conditions, 
both biological and sociological, of human progress. 
Practically, we must have teachers who know the hered- 
itary and acquired natures of our adolescent youth and 
who have also a broad understanding of the sociological 
forces of the school community and modern complex 
society. In the biology, civic, social economy, hygiene, 
and industrial courses real teaching for social efficiency 
will emphasize among others these great hereditary and 
sociological factors: the importance of the choice of suit- 
able and hereditarily complementary mates in marriage, 
the varying original individualities of people, the impor- 
tance of avoiding environmental conditions in the way 
of occupations, indoor or outdoor life, associates, certain 



THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 673 

types of excesses, etc., which will tend to bring out and 
encourage hereditary weaknesses, and, vice versa, the 
choice of studies best suited to original nature, not only 
vocational but all-round life guidance in the light of this 
growing science, the organization and the methods which 
will cultivate and foster those common and uncommon 
traits desirable in modern life— all these and many more 
adjustments, adequate knowledge of eugenics and hered- 
ity in their co-operation with environment will develop 
in the high school of the future. The coming social and 
pragmatic high school in place of the old socially isolated 
and academic institution will in the future send out such 
leaders as will contribute materially, in a few generations, 
to improve the stock that now twenty millions strong 
fills our public schools. As yet we have little more than 
the problem and the first tentative and halting steps in 
the right direction. 

Educational Hygiene. — When we come to the environ- 
mental control we are, however, on surer ground. Con- 
scious human evolution has so far contented itself with 
controlling the conditions of environment surrounding 
individuals after they have entered the world fully 
equipped with their original nature made up of millions 
of separate inheritable traits. We have great and sur- 
prising success in controlling the death-rate, the amount 
of morbidity, the length of human life, the intelligence, 
the social responsiveness, and the ability and power of 
individuals and nations. We have before us here the 
single problem of what the high school can do to promote 
the health of the nation — the problem of educational hy- 
giene in secondary schools. 

The Administration of Educational Hygiene.— The 
science of educational hygiene is yet in its infancy, but 



674 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



it can point 
— namely : 


to five fairly definite and standard divisions 

i. Medical Supervision. 
2. School Sanitation. 




3- 

4- 
5- 


Physical Education. 
Teaching Hygiene. 
Hygienic Teaching. 



The manifold functions of these divisions are graphi- 
cally represented by the following chart which names 
many of the various functions and covers also the work 
of the elementary schools. 

This new science, with these various divisions, is being 
developed in response to serious national and school 
health needs and problems. About two per cent of our 
entire population die off each year, about half of which 
loss is preventable and postponable. There are all the 
time between three and four millions of our population 
seriously ill and losing wages and causing enormous 
sickness-care losses to private and public agencies. Be- 
sides these there is an extremely large amount of pre- 
ventable minor ailments and defects which greatly lower 
vital and working efficiency and happiness. In another 
volume the writer has estimated some of the most im- 
portant of these school and national losses and their 
reasonable preventability by the adoption of present- 
known scientific instrumentalities and precautions. 1 

Three other writers of chapters in this series, Doctors 
Berry and Warthin in "High School Education," and 
Doctor Naismith in this volume, have admirably shown 
how improved teaching of hygiene and reorganized phys- 
ical education can aid in the promotion of health and 
national vitality. We have, then, in this chapter the 

1 " School Health Administration." 



THE DIVISIONS OF EDUCATIONAL 
HYGIENE 

Supervisor of Hygiene 



MEDICAL 
SUPERVISION 



SCHOOL 
SANITATION 



PHYSICAL 
EDUCATION 



TEACHING 
HYGIENE 



HYGIENIC 
TEACHING 



INSPECTIONS 
AND ANNUAL 
EXAMINATIONS 



DISCOVERING 

HEALTH 

NEEDS. 

CO-OPERATING 
WITH BOARDS 
OF HEALTH 
AND PRIVATE 
ORGANIZA- 
TIONS. 



LIMITING 
DOCTORS TO 
EXAMINA- 
TIONS, 

SUPERVISION 
OP NURSES 
AND WORK 
IN CLINICS. 

PSYCHOLO- 
GISTS. 
OCULISTS. 
SURGEONS, 
DENTISTS, 
PHYSICIANS. 

SUPERVISION 
OF SCHOOL 
FEEDING. 

SCIENTIFIC 
STUDIES OF 
PREVENTION 
AND CAUSE 
OF. DISEASE. 

CAREFUL 

RECORDS 

EMPHASIZING 

SERIOUS 

AILMENTS 

FOUND AND. 

CURED. 

TRAINING 
SCHOOL 
NURSES FOR 
ALL INSPEC- 
TION AND 
EXAMINATION. 
NURSES AS 
ATTENDANCE 
OFFICERS. 



SCHOOL SITES 
AND ARCHI- 
TECTURE. 

VENTILATION. 



DRINKING 
WATER AND 
FOUNTAINS. 



HYGIENIC 

TOILET 

FACILITIES. 



DECORATION. 

THE STAND- 
ARD SCHOOL 
ROOM. 

FIRE-PROOF 
CONSTRUC- 
TION. 

HEALTH, REST, 
AND EMER- 
GENCY ROOMS. 

PLAYROOMS 
AND ROOF 
PLAYGROUNDS. 



DRYING AND 

WARMING 

SEATS. 

rNVESTIGA- 
TIONS OF RE- 
CIRCULATION, 
HUMIDITY, 
AIR-CLEAN- 
ING, DISIN- 
FECTION, ETC. 



PHYSICAL 
TRAINING 
AND GYM- 
NASTICS. 



POSTURE AND 
CORRECTIONAL 
EXERCISES. 

ASSISTING 
IN MEDICAL 
SUPERVISION. 

RECREATION. 

SCHOOL 
EXCURSIONS 
AND TRAMPS. 

BOY SCOUTS 
AND CAMP 
FIRE GIRLS. 

GYMNASIUMS 
AND ATHLETIC 
FIELDS. 



POOLS, SHOW- 
ERS AND 
BEACHES. 



PHYSICAL 
EDUCATORS 
WITH MEDICAL 
KNOWLEDGE. 



PAY FOR 
SUPERVISING 
PLAY AFTER 
SCHOOL AND 
SATURDAYS. 

CULTIVATING 
THE GREEK 
IDEAL OF <"- 
PHYSICAL 
AND MENTAL 
PERFECTION. 



HEALTH EDU- 
CATION OF 
TEACHERS. 

ADVISING 
CHOICE OF 
BEST HYGIENE 
TEXTS AND 
TOPICS. 
FORMING 
PERSONAL 
HYGIENE 
HABITS. 

PUBLTC 
HYGIENE 
STUDY AND 
CO-OPERATION. 

HEALTH EDU- 
CATION OF 
PARENTS. 
FEEDING, 
CLOTHING 
AND SLEEP 
OF CHILDREN. 

HOME HYGIENE 
IN DOMESTIC 
SCIENCE. 

VOCATIONAL 
HYGIENE IN 
INDUSTRIAL 
SUBJECTS. 

TALKS BY 
DOCTORS, 
NURSES AND 
SPECIALISTS. 
FIRST AID. 
SEX HYGIENE 
STUDYING 
COMMUNITY 
HEALTH 
PROBLEMS 
AND METHODS 
OF IMPROVE- 
MENT. 

DAILY ORAL 
QUESTION- 
NAIRE ON 
HOME 
HYGIENE: 
USE OF 
TOOTH-BRUSH, 
COFFEE 
DRINKING, 
VENTILATION, 
ETC. 
HEALTH 
KNOWLEDGE, 
HEALTH 
IDEALS. 
HEALTH 
EFFICIENCY. 



"THE HYGIENE 
OF INSTRUC- 
TION." 

FATIGUE, 
OVER-WORK 
AND UNDER- 
WORK. 



THE HYGIENE 
OF SCHOOL 
SUBJECTS. 



INTER-RECI- 
TATION RE- 
CREATION. 

TRANSFORM- 
ING NEURAS- 
THENIC AND 
"CRANKY" 
TEACHERS. 

MOTOR 
ASPECTS OP 
TEACHING. 



THE HYGIENE 
OF JOY IN 
SCHOOLS. 

PREVENTING 
PHYSICAL 
DEFECTS AND 
PATHOLOGICAL 
CONDITIONS. 



INFLUENCE 
OF VACA- 
TIONS AND 
HOLIDAYS. 



HYGIENIC 
EFFECTS OP 
DIFFERENT 
METHODS. 

THE TEACHER 
AS MEDICAL 
GUARDIAN. 



675 



676 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

three remaining divisions of the subject: Medical Super- 
vision, School Sanitation, and Hygienic Teaching. To 
show more definitely a phase of the health problem which 
the high school must help the nation to solve, we present 
the following table on the number of preventable deaths 
each year among children of high school age. The ra- 
tios of preventability for the twenty-five causes of death 
given are those constructed by Professor Irving Fisher, 
with the help of thirty leading medical, sanitary, and 
insurance experts, and are printed in the author's book 
on national vitality. A careful study of these prevent- 
ability estimates will convince most candid persons that 
they are conservative and scientific figures and that they 
make no effort to state what the preventability will be 
with the rapidly increasing knowledge of health improve- 
ment. The deaths of pupils during the high school years 
by no means measure the number that may reasonably 
have been prevented by a more genuine high school edu- 
cation. The number of persons dying in the five and ten 
year periods immediately following the high school age 
is much greater and increasing. Besides the inherited 
weaknesses and predispositions of heredity as causes, 
a very large proportion is plainly due to disgraceful 
health ignorance, to lack of adequate health knowledge, 
of health ideals, of health habits, and of splendid bodily 
resistance to ever-assailing disease bacilli — all of which 
it is so largely the province of the public schools to de- 
velop in our citizenship. The high school cannot reach 
all youth of this age, of course, but it does have the op- 
portunity of sending out most of the leaders in every 
community, who function largely in making public health 
agencies and private health standards what they are. 
Here is the table: 






THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 677 



Estimated Preventability of Deaths of Children of High School 
Age, Fifteen-Nineteen, Inclusive, for the Twenty-Five Most 
Numerous Causes of Death in 19 10 



Causes of Deaths 



No. Deaths 
in Regis- 
tration 
Area 



Per 
Cent 
Prevent- 
able 



Total No. 
Deaths 
in All 

States 



No. Deaths 
Prevent- 
able 



i. Pulmonary tuberculosis. . 

2. Accidents 

3. Typhoid 

4. Heart disease, organic .... 

5. Pneumonia 

6. Tuberculosis, other parts . 

7. Appendicitis 

8. Bright's disease 

9. Suicide 

10. Meningitis 

n. Rheumatism, articular. . . 

12. Diabetes 

13. Scarlet fever 

14. Diphtheria and croup. . . . 

15. Nephritis, acute 

16. Endocarditis (heart) 

17. Epilepsy 

18. Peritonitis 

19. Broncho-pneumonia 

20. Cancer and other tumors . 

2 1 . Spinal cord, other diseases 

22. Influenza, grippe 

23. Intestinal obstruction.. . . 

24. Measles 

25. Apoplexy, cerebr. hem. . . 

Totals 



5,166 

2,525 
1,681 
1,158 
1,140 

933 
754 
440 
326 
294 
261 
258 
232 
228 
199 
196 
172 
162 
158 
152 
130 
119 
117 
112 
103 



75 
? 

85 
25 
45 
75 

50 
40 
? 
70 
10 
10 

5o 

70 

30 

25 

o 

55 
50 
o 
? 
SO 
25 
40 

35 



8,650 

4,230 

2,830 

1,940 

1,920 

i,57o 

1,270 

74o 

55o 

500 

45o 

45o 

400 

400 

34o 

340 

300 

280 

280 

260 

220 

200 

200 

190 

180 



17,016* 



42 1 



28,690 



6,487 
? 

2,405 



864 

,177 

635 

296 

? 

35o 

45 

45 

200 

280 

102 

85 
o 

154 

140 

o 

? 

100 

50 

76 
63 



14,039 



*86% of total for this age period. \&1% Fisher's average. 

Total number of deaths, 15-19, in registration area, 19,772 — all causes. 

Total number of deaths, 15-19, in the United States, about 34,000 — all 
causes. 

Total number of deaths, 15-19, preventable, about 24,000 — all causes. 

Based on 19 10 United States mortality statistics and Fisher's pre- 
ventability tables in his ''National Vitality." 

Accidents are very largely preventable, probably 75 per cent. 



678 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

These statistics of death taken from the United States 
mortality statistics for 1910 are, in the light of their pre- 
ventability, appalling; and demonstrate, as can nothing 
else, the need of our high schools treating our youth, not 
as disembodied mentalities to be sharpened by mediaeval 
instruments into some theoretical and hypothetical form, 
but as actual human beings in the actual complex situ- 
ations of the present. 

Death is, however, only a partial measure of the prob- 
lem. There are also a large amount of illness and a 
great number of physical defects, largely curable or pre- 
ventable, which we cannot take space here to describe. 
Sufficient to say that no public high school of America is 
at present adequately meeting the health problem, and 
that a very large number are in many ways actually 
manufacturing defects, bringing out latent inherited de- 
fective and disease tendencies, and failing to provide 
that all-round, generous health-and-vitality education 
which would help us not only to match the old-time 
Grecian education but go far beyond it into that scien- 
tific health-and-development education demanded by the 
times. 

Medical Supervision. — In another place the writer 
has worked out a plan for the administration of educa- 
tional hygiene. Therein we have shown that the weak- 
ness of the health-and-development work of schools 
has been its separateness, the isolation of its parts, and 
the poor educational and professional equipment of its 
directors, including school superintendents. All these 
heterogeneous health agencies, so recently pushed or 
pulled into the schools by various agencies and for vari- 
ous purposes, should be and are being integrated in one 
department of hygiene for each school system under the 






THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 679 

direction of a supervisor of hygiene who is both a physi- 
cian and a physical educator versed and experienced in 
medical sociology, pediatrics, and educational hygiene. 
With him will be associated a school nurse for each fifteen 
hundred to two thousand pupils in a school system and 
a part-time physician, in the beginning at least, for each 
three thousand pupils, counting the supervisor of hygiene 
as one physician. A city of twelve thousand pupils 
would, then, begin with a hygiene supervisor, three assis- 
tant, part-time physicians (two hours a day at least) , and 
six or more nurses. Additions and changes can be made 
by supervisor and superintendent of schools after in- 
vestigation and intelligent study of conditions. To these, 
of course, must be added all-round school clinics with 
skilled attendants. 

Duties of Physicians and Nurses. — The typical high 
school of the country being one with less than four 
teachers, and the high school enrolment being only about 
one twentieth that of the elementary schools, with the 
further conditions that the number of defects decreases 
somewhat upward through the schools and that high 
school pupils are of such a social class and with such 
ability for self-help as makes medical care somewhat 
less necessary than for elementary pupils of all social 
classes and much younger — all these factors tend to 
make the health problem of the high school only a small 
part of the general problem of medical supervision and 
hygiene, and tend toward a lamentable neglect therein. 
If the gymnasium teachers were what they should be in 
the large city high schools, where we frequently find a 
woman and a man as directors of physical education for 
girls and boys; if they were physicians skilled in medical 
phases of adolescence, with the occasional assistance of 



680 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the nurses and with capable teachers of hygiene, there 
would be little need of medical supervision of high 
schools from the outside. Unfortunately, very few such 
directors of physical education are physicians, and even 
when they are they get little credit for it or opportunity 
to use their medical knowledge in the service of the high 
school. Moreover, such directors as exist who are also 
physicians are now speedily being drawn away to take 
the newly created positions of supervisors of hygiene in 
various cities. Consequently, we shall have to plan, for 
the present, to get along with teachers who are only 
physical educators in the high schools; but we shall de- 
mand of them that they increase their knowledge of 
medical and physical diagnosis and medical gymnastics 
as rapidly as possible, through summer schools, the rap- 
idly developing literature on the subject, and through 
teaching by the general supervisor of hygiene. 

Public opinion, at the inception of medical inspection 
for adolescents, demands cautious methods and the exam- 
ination of girls by women and boys by men, although in 
many schools both sexes are being medically examined 
by male physicians. Probably the best solution in most 
cities and country districts— say a township or county — 
will be for the supervisor of hygiene to take charge of 
medical work in the high schools, getting the assistance 
of a first-class woman physician wherever possible. The 
nurses will make such inspections of pupils as is neces- 
sary probably without very many room inspections of 
pupils and principally those referred to them by teachers 
and physical-training directors if any. The high school 
physician will devote himself almost entirely to the ex- 
amination of pupils. Such examinations should be dis- 
tributed over the school year, perhaps, in order that the 



THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 681 

physician may visit the school at regular intervals and 
for consultation with the nurse. The nurse will also 
refer all perplexing cases to the physician at his office 
for confirmatory inspection. Where there are two to 
four thousand high school pupils or more it may be well 
for one or two physicians to devote their entire time to 
high school medical examination and supervision. The 
supervisor should devote only a part of his examining 
time each day to such work, since it is necessary for 
him to keep in close touch with the elementary-school 
problem. Where there are intermediate schools they 
should be treated as high schools. The need is for an- 
nual or biennial physical examinations of all pupils, as 
many inspections as prove necessary, and adequate 
follow-up work. The responsibility for cure and treat- 
ment of ailments should be placed upon the shoulders 
of the pupils, who may be required to report regularly 
on what they have done for their health. 

The Medical Examination. — The physician will visit 
the high school at regular intervals and examine thor- 
oughly with the assistance of the nurse, or occasionally 
a capable student, for recording and for making vision 
tests. Where there are physical-training directors they 
should lend assistance and make as much of the exam- 
inations as their training permits. Those pupils going 
into athletics should be examined first with special atten- 
tion to heart and lung defects, then should come the 
graduating class of the term, and, finally, the freshmen 
and higher-class students. Each pupil's record should 
be placed on the following, or similar, cumulative health- 
record card five by eight inches in size. The nurse 
should use red and the doctor black ink for the record. 
These record cards may be kept in the principal's office, 



682 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

gymnasium office, or, rarely, in the rooms of the official 
or class teachers. Whenever the student is suspected 
of any ailment by teacher, principal, physical- training 
teacher, or nurse he is to be sent to the health room for 
closer inspection by the nurse or for inspection or com- 
plete examination by the physician. The nurse may 
visit the high schools each day for referred cases and 
may make occasional inspections of part or of all the 
pupils. A nurse who has had experience in inspecting 
upper-grade elementary-school pupils will have no diffi- 
culty in handling the high school situation. The nurse 
will make weekly reports of her own work and that of 
the physician on a report probably similar to that pub- 
lished by the writer in another volume. 1 The records 
of high school pupils should be kept separate from those 
of elementary pupils in the central office. 

The principal ailments which will probably be found 
in the high schools, with their probable frequency given 
as medians for the number of ailments to be found in any 
one school year among a thousand pupils, cannot ac- 
curately be stated. A tentative, working classification, 
terminology, and frequency table for elementary schools 
is here presented. High schools may well use the same 
classification. 

I. NON-COMMUNICABLE AlLMENTS 

A. PHYSICAL DEFECTS 

Probable No. Ailments 
per 1,000 El. Pupils. 

i. Adenoids, nasal obstruction, etc 50 

2. Anaemia 10 

3. Deafness, defective hearing 5 

4. Dental, teeth 660 

x " School Health Administration." 






THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 683 

Probable No. Ailments 
per 1,000 El. Pupils. 

Enlarged tonsils 60 

Eyesight, vision 70 

Eyes crossed, strabismus, squint 7 

Glands enlarged, adenitis . . 10 

Heart defects 9 

Lungs very weak, not tuberculosis 5 

Malnutrition, debility, indigestion, general condition. . 20 

Mentality, defects of 10 

Nervousness, chorea, habit spasm, nervous exhaustion . 2 

Palate defects 7 

Skeleton: orthopedic defects (flat-foot, club-foot, etc.) . . 2 

Spine: curvature, posture, round shoulders, etc 8 

Speech: stuttering, stammering, lisping, etc 9 



B". COMMON AILMENTS 

Abscess, boils, etc 5 

Acute sore throat, cough, etc 2 

Bronchitis 1 

Cleanliness needed 20 

Catarrh, rhinitis 10 

Colds, bad. Coryza 30 

Ear discharge, otitis media 15 

Ears: ear wax (impacted cerumen), foreign bodies, etc., 

minor 5 

Eczema » 7 

Eyes: "sore," blepharitis, sties, iritis, etc., minor 20 

Headache (a symptom), migraine, neuralgia 15 

Laryngitis 5 

Nose-bleed, epistaxis 2 

Pharyngitis, chronic sore throat 3 

Rheumatism 1 

Sex ailments and habits 10 

Skin ailments, minor: herpes, seborrhea, acne (black- 
heads) , etc 15 

Stomatitis, mouth ulcers, "canker sores" 1 

Wounds, sores, sprains, poison-ivy, chilblains, "first- 
aid," etc 1 50 

Urinary ailments: incontinence of urine, enuresis 2 



684 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



II. Communicable Ailments 

A. PARASITIC AND MINOR INFECTIOUS AILMENTS 

Probable No. Ailments 
per 1,000 El. Pupils. 

38. Conjunctivitis, "pinkeye," etc 30 

39. Favus, yellow scalp sores 1 

40. Impetigo "contagioso," infectious sores 20 

41. Influenza, grippe, infectious colds of a serious character. 1 

42. Pediculosis, head lice and vermin 50 

43. Ringworm, body and scalp 4 

44. Scabies, itch 5 

45. Tonsillitis, quinsy 10 

B. INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

46. Chicken-pox 6 

47. Diphtheria 2 

48. Measles 4 

49. Mumps 4 

50. Scarlet fever 4 

51. Trachoma, "granulated eyelids". 1 

52. Tuberculosis of the lungs, "consumption" 1 

53. Tuberculosis of the bones and other parts of the body.. 1 

54. Whooping-cough, pertussis 2 

Total 1,409 

THE AILMENTS OF HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS 

We give below the average number of ailments found 
for the years 1911-12 and 191 2-13 by medical inspectors 
in the three high schools of Newark, N. J. The classi- 
fication and figures at the left are those of the writer's 
tentative standard classification of school ailments in 
fifty-four divisions; the figures at the right show the 
probable number of ailments which the physicians of 
Newark will find in any one year among each thousand 
pupils examined compared ^vith those for elementary- 



THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 685 



Average Number of Physical Defects Found Among These 1,384 
Defective Pupils, with Frequency of Ailments Given as 
Number to Be Found Among 1,000 High and Elementary 
School Pupils 



I. Physical Defects 

1. Adenoids, nasal obstruction, etc 

3. Deafness, defective hearing 

4. Dental, teeth 

5. Enlarged tonsils 

6. Eyesight, vision 

8. Glands enlarged, adenitis 

9. Heart defects 

10. Lungs very weak, not (?) tuberculosis. . 
n. Malnutrition, debility 

12. Mentality defective 

13. Nervousness, chorea, nervous exhaus- 

tion, etc 

14. Palate defects 

15. Skeleton: orthopedic defects, chest. . . . 

16. Spine: curvature, posture, round shoul- 

ders, etc 

17. Speech defects 



Totals 

II. Common Ailments 
All skin ailments are given together . 



FOUND 


HIGH 


IOI 


41 


IO3 


41 


740 


340 


298 


I36 


555 


254 


17 


8 


102 


4i 


22 


10 


78 


36 


1 


1 


5 


3 


8 


4 


42 


19 


19 


8 


5 


3 


2,096 


945 


no 


43 



ELE- 
MENTARY 



50 

5 

660 

60 

77 
10 

9 

5 or 6 
20 
10 

2 

7 
2 



934 



Examinations 

Average number of pupils examined 2,186 

Average number of pupils normal 802 



Average number of pupils with defects . 
Average for pupils defective, about 2 



1,384 =63 per cent. 



686 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

school pupils. Records are not here given of all the ail- 
ments suffered by these pupils, only those found in the 
schools. Practically all the pupils of the high schools 
were examined during these two years and there were 
an average of 1,627 inspected for infectious ailments, 
mostly pupils referred by teachers. 

INSPECTIONS 

Aside from the thorough-going examinations, an aver- 
age of 1,627 inspections of pupils were made, with the 
result that an average of 12 pupils were excluded each 
year. The many common and serious non-infectious 
ailments are not given in the report — only causes of the 
twelve exclusions, averaging about one each for the fol- 
lowing infectious ailments: 38, eye diseases; 41, influenza; 
43, ringworm; 44, scabies; 45, tonsillitis; 47, diphtheria; 
48, measles; 50, scarlet fever; 51, trachoma, fever, and 
headache combined, not vaccinated, and 4 " others.' ' 

ANALYSIS OF THE TABLE 

We see according to these figures that practically 
two thirds of the high school pupils are physically de- 
fective without counting some thirty classes of ailments 
not here recorded. This happens to be my estimate 
derived from the study of the data for many cities as to 
the proportion of elementary pupils defective for all (54 
classes) ailments. We should judge from this that high 
school pupils (of Newark, at least) are even more de- 
fective than the average run of elementary pupils. Our 
estimate is that one third of the elementary school 
children will be found in any one school year to be free 
from all serious ailments, one third with only teeth de- 



THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 687 

fects, and one third with teeth and other defects. Here, 
in Newark, only a third (340) have teeth defects; and 
the total number of ailments, for defects at least, is but 
642 to our estimate of 943 for elementary pupils among 
666 defectives found among a thousand pupils. 

The following Newark figures for the high school ail- 
ments are probably unconscious exaggerations with ref- 
erence to cases of defective hearing, enlarged tonsils, 
defective vision, heart, and orthopedic defects. The 
standard for defective vision is set at 20/30 instead of 
20/40, and this permits the recording of many minor 
cases of defective vision that are not serious enough to 
be referred for glasses. We should expect more pupils 
of the high schools to need glasses, according to modern 
systems of schooling, but not as many as 25 per cent 
(254 in a thousand). The teeth cases are probably un- 
derestimates, although we should expect the high school 
pupils to have much better teeth and mouth conditions 
than elementary pupils. The defective high school pu- 
pils have about one ailment each while the elementary 
pupils have an average of nearer two. The kind and 
frequency of the ailments found in the two types of 
schools seem remarkably alike. 

On the whole, we see that the problem of health in the 
high school is one of the most serious which the institu- 
tion must meet. 

The supervisor of hygiene, will, of course, have power 
to alter a pupil's programme of study, to prohibit his 
entering athletic contests, and to exclude him from 
school for infectious ailments or for not getting cured 
ailments of which he has been notified — all, of course, 
under the general supervision of the superintendent of 
schools. 



688 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

The best general statement of the needs, the methods, 
and the advantages of first-class medical inspection and 
examination of high schools, to the writer's knowledge, 
has been made by Doctor Thomas Storey, supervisor of 
hygiene in the College of the City of New York, includ- 
ing the large secondary school connected with it. The 
study made by Doctor W. S. Small of the Eastern High 
School, Washington, D. C, is also an important contri- 
bution, showing what can be done without physicians. 1 

School Sanitation. — Adequate medical supervision 
demonstrates the need for improved school sanitation, 
hygiene of instruction, physical education, and health 
teaching. The health needs and problems of the pupils 
and of the people of the community set the hygiene 
problems of the high school. School sanitation is so 
largely a technical and detailed subject and varies so 
much with the different types of high schools that our 
space permits little more than its mention here. The 
principles involved are largely those involved in the ele- 
mentary schools, but there seems to be a better tendency 
toward improved sanitary conditions in high schools 
than in elementary schools, largely because the high 
schools are generally the show buildings of towns and 
much money is put into their construction. The newer 
buildings have good lighting, heating, ventilating, and 
sewage facilities. Many more of them are being made 
absolutely fire-proof or nearly so. The decorations are 
attractive and restful; toilet conveniences and sanitary 
drinking fountains are found on every floor; the clean- 
ing is done with vacuum-cleaning appliances; the school 
gymnasiums for boys and girls have attached to them 
numerous shower-baths, with sometimes a swimming 

1 Address at Fourth International Congress on School Hygiene. 



THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 689 

pool; and there are medical rooms, rest and emergency 
rooms, and a large, well-lighted and ventilated assembly 
hall. In most of the larger buildings lunch rooms have 
been provided which, under skilled faculty control, are 
furnishing wholesome and nourishing food to the student 
body at nominal prices. The furniture, especially the 
seating, is comfortable, easily moved about, and adjust- 
able to the size of pupils in all classrooms, being adjusted 
so as to provide for pupils of different heights, so pupils 
may find seats to fit them when they pass from room to 
room. 

The standard for lighting should be glass space equal 
to one fourth of the floor space, with windows reaching 
to the ceilings and with the narrowest possible mullions 
or piers between windows; the curtains should be translu- 
cent ecru or light green and should roll either way from 
the middle of the windows or should be on adjustable 
fixtures for moving them up and down. 

For details of lighting, heating, ventilating, cleaning, 
and other sanitary features and measures, the reader is 
referred to some standard text-book on the subject such 
as Dresslar's "School Hygiene." In this volume there is 
some statement of the special adjustments necessary to 
meet the high school situation. 

Hygienic Teaching in the High School. — This phase 
of health work in schools is yet in embryo. We know 
that the health of girls has been ruined by overstudy 
and bad methods of work, by being under the domina- 
tion of irritable, petty, neurasthenic teachers; that rigid 
uniformity with little adaptation to the individualities of 
pupils frequently creates a distaste for the high school 
amounting almost to nausea; and, in general, that the 
methods of teaching and of study, the subjects, the per- 



690 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

sonalities of the teachers, the corporate life of the schools, 
the amount of practical industrial work and socializing, 
idealizing talks and literature, or their lack or opposite, 
may be such as to fill the pupils with joy, ideals, vigor, 
enthusiasm, and ambition, or their opposites of " sliding 
through somehow," " beating the game," "wonder if I 
shall be called upon," dislike for school, the elimination 
of "two thirds of the pupils the first year" with thirty 
per cent discharged each year, and less than ten per cent 
of those entering remaining to graduate, and all that lack 
of vitality, efficiency, and hygienic living conditions 
which develop under formal, mechanical, and academic 
systems with Gradgrind teachers divorced from the 
larger life of the world and of the adolescent life about 
them. 

The hygiene of instruction or the problem of hygienic 
teaching in the high school will concern itself with these 
problems of health, happiness, and efficiency which mean 
so much for the adequate socialization and education of 
America's best citizenship. They are, as yet, mainly 
problems and they can be solved only by persons will- 
ing and able to study them especially in the high 
schools themselves. The present reorganization of sec- 
ondary education which is resulting in the throwing out 
of a good deal of the formal, unapplied subjects less 
valuable as educative machinery than other easily ob- 
tainable material nearer the lives of the pupils and the 
need of the communities, with the introduction of motor 
and industrial subjects, up-to-date literature appealing 
to twentieth-century boys and girls in a vital way, the 
social-science courses which start with the chief commu- 
nity problems of a public character, introducing and 
keeping the pupils in touch with vital, throbbing issues, 



THE HYGIENE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 691 

the development of agriculture and hygiene courses 
instead of so much of the dead languages and mathe- 
matics — all these changes, even the introduction of par- 
ticipation in the government of the school, student gov- 
ernment, will, just as much as the study of fatigue and 
the type, or print, of books, make for radical changes in 
the hygienic influences of the high school. When the 
whole system of hygiene in the public schools is under a 
scientific specialist, a physician-physical educator, to 
lead, to study, and to inspire interest in the various 
phases of health, and when we obtain teachers in touch 
with the problems of life, then we shall have the indis- 
pensable elements of adequate high school hygiene. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE HIGH SCHOOL AS THE ART CENTRE OF THE 
COMMUNITY 

Ella Bond Johnston 

CHAIRMAN ART DEPARTMENT, GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS. 
MEMBER ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON SELECTION OF PAINTINGS, PANAMA- 
PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION. PRESIDENT, 1898-I913, 
THE ART ASSOCIATION OF RICHMOND, IND. 

Complete Living Threefold. — Our public educational 
system was not conceived in a big view of the essentials 
of complete living; and the much-talked-of "whole boy" 
is, after all, viewed by educators as only one third, or at 
most two thirds, of a complete human being, if the offer- 
ings of our lopsided school curriculums indicate all his 
needs and capacities. 

Ages ago complete living was declared to be threefold, 
and truth, goodness, and beauty are as necessary for it 
now as in the ancient days. Nevertheless, our educa- 
tors have been interested principally in truth. They 
have been fascinated with the facts of science and cap- 
tivated with the alluring output of the printing-press. 
Following the easiest way, they have built up a marvel- 
lous system of cramming the facts contained in books 
into the "boy" in forge tfulness of his whole need in 
complete living. As a result, we have the absurd spec- 
tacle of a well-filled, so-called "educated" population, 

692 



THE ART CENTRE OF THE COMMUNITY 693 

yet with inadequately trained will-power to use its facts 
for good purposes and with no taste to insure happiness 
and beauty in their use. 

The emotions that make up so much of the conscious 
secret life of youth and are the great source of inspira- 
tion — that fine, invisible power which drives character 
and lends charm to personality — are these to be ignored? 

Our educators do not, apparently, think it necessary to 
make children intelligently acquainted with their own 
emotions, to graduate them sensitive to the beauty of 
nature and alive to the pleasure of art. They can re- 
ceive the highest degrees from our greatest universities 
and not know ragtime from Beethoven and prefer a 
chromo to Rembrandt. They can become, under our 
educational ideals, marvels of information in some ob- 
scure field of scientific research and yet be monstrous 
personalities, crude children, incapable of appreciative 
enjoyment of the world's wealth of art. 

We do not yet understand that to be completely ready 
to live — to be educated — is not only to know the truth, 
to do the good, but also to have the taste to be beautiful 
in all the visible, outward expressions of life. 

It has been too long in America taken for granted that 
taste is inborn. Different degrees of capacity for ac- 
quiring it, doubtless, may be innate in individuals, but 
taste is not inborn. Bad taste is ignorance. Good 
taste is as much a matter of education as proficiency in 
any branch of learning, but it cannot be learned out of 
books nor by the psychological and scientific methods in 
use in our schools for presenting other subjects. Taste 
requires for its development the actual, environing pres- 
ence of works of art — poetry, music, painting, to hear 
and see familiarly. 



694 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Rightful Place of Art in Public Schools. — Appreciation 
by the many with the consequent happiness and spir- 
itual enlargement thus added to life is the primary pur- 
pose of art in the public schools rather than technical 
efficiency in drawing for the few. This will require 
changes in attitude and methods, but it is the business 
of the public school to carry the burden and take the 
lead in fostering all the splendid ideals to be realized in 
our democracy. Our system must be broad enough to 
build a civilization founded on the facts of science, ad- 
ministered in righteousness, and visibly expressed in the 
language of beauty and art. 

Uniqueness of the Richmond Story. — The caption of 
this chapter is unique in the history of education, and it 
can be readily understood that its contents have not 
been compiled from the results of research work in the 
high school field, neither is it an essay on art full of 
theories and idle dreams. It is, in truth, a plain tale of 
sixteen years' work in establishing an art movement in 
connection with the public high school of Richmond, 
Ind., that has attained the status indicated in the chap- 
ter heading. It does not advance a theory for making 
a high school an art centre, but tells how one high school 
grew to be an art centre in a community, and in the 
telling, perhaps, can give some of the inspiration that 
made that possible. 

Organization. — In 1897 there was organized in Rich- 
mond, Ind., a city of less than twenty-five thousand in- 
habitants, an art association by a few art-loving citizens, 
school officials, and local artists, that has developed a 
democratic community art movement which is an inspi- 
ration and a model to the rapidly increasing number 
who are interested in the spread of art in America, and 



THE ART CENTRE OF THE COMMUNITY 695 

especially those who believe in the use of a schoolhouse 
as a centre of the intellectual life of a community. 

Existing Conditions. — Happily, in this small city there 
were no iron-clad, rock-ribbed traditions about art being 
too fine a thing for the daily life of the people, nor was 
the growth of this movement blighted in the bud by those 
fixed standards of taste that have not changed since the 
Italian Renaissance. There was, however, in this peo- 
ple a conscious human desire for beauty, for happiness, 
and for some greater degree of satisfying perfection in 
their community life. The leaders in this art move- 
ment realized that no institution in their midst was en- 
deavoring to meet this need and set about heroically to 
supply the deficiency. Drawing was taught in the 
Richmond schools as well as in most towns, and prob- 
ably better. This offered training for the hand and eye 
and some knowledge of the principles and the history of 
art, but it did not give that which is of greater spiritual 
value to the individual or the community, the opportu- 
nity to enjoy and appreciate works of art, and in their 
actual presence to acquire higher standards of taste and 
the refinement of the emotions which an intimate ac- 
quaintance with art gives. 

Efforts of Art Association. — The efforts, then, of this 
Art Association were directed toward supplying to the 
established drawing work in the schools an appreciative 
side by adding to the annual school exhibit the best 
obtainable works of art in oil and water-color painting, 
sculpture, arts and crafts, etc. Community interest, 
very wisely considered more important in the beginning 
than standards of taste, was obtained by borrowing for 
the exhibitions every picture, every piece of handicraft, 
every curio having any artistic merit, and some that had 



696 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

none, from the citizens of the town, and also by exhibit- 
ing the work of local artists and craftsmen. The work 
was begun in the democratic spirit of William Morris, 
who did not want art for the few any more than edu- 
cation or freedom for the few. Thus always the doors 
of this art exhibit, held in a public schoolhouse, were 
open free to every one in the community. And thus 
early was here realized the social-centre ideal. 

Expenses. — The expenses of these free annual art ex- 
hibits were met by the fifty-cent dues of a large member- 
ship and five-dollar subscriptions from interested citi- 
zens, called " sustaining members," made up from that 
class of business men who everywhere are loyal to all 
movements for the good of their town. The school 
board assisted by furnishing the building, lights, and 
janitor service. 

After seven years of successful work, the importance 
of the art exhibits established, the common council of 
the city began annually to appropriate one hundred dol- 
lars from the city treasury to the expense fund, which 
necessarily increased as the size and quality of the ex- 
hibits increased. 

Schoolhouse for Art Gallery. — For fourteen years the 
exhibitions were held in June, during the last week of the 
school year. The centrally located departmental school 
building, where only a few final examinations were held, 
was turned over to the Art Association, and by the re- 
moval of all desks, closing of unnecessary windows, put- 
ting up of suitable backgrounds this building of twelve 
rooms and two large corridors was magically transformed 
into an art gallery where it was possible to display works 
of art attractively. 

Early Exhibits. — Beginning in the easiest as well as 



THE ART CENTRE OF THE COMMUNITY 697 

the most logical and effective way, by exhibiting all that 
was of local production or interest, these annual exhibi- 
tions were gradually extended to include the work of 
the artists of the State, and prizes were offered for the 
best local and State work, awards being made by a 
competent jury of artists living outside the State. In 
this way poor work was gradually eliminated without of- 
fence to prevailing standards of taste. Unconsciously 
the public was educated to better standards by the perva- 
sive influence of accredited work. With a thoroughly 
aroused community interest it was easy, after a few years, 
to enlarge the exhibits by the addition of representative 
work from the foremost American painters, sculptors, 
and craftsmen. Increased possibilities for getting the 
best works of art were obtained and a great reduction 
in cost was made by inducing other cities in the State 
to join in a circuit with Richmond to undertake an ex- 
hibit and share the general expense of handling it. 

Attendance. — These exhibitions were attended by fifty 
per cent of the population, including the public-school 
children under the guidance of their teachers, who had 
first visited the exhibit with the supervisor of drawing. 
The children and teachers of three parochial schools of 
the town also attended. Visitors were attracted from all 
the near-by towns to this annual " democratic festival," 
as the exhibit was called by a noted publicist. 

Limitations. — After fourteen years of normal growth 
this art movement was thoroughly established in the 
hearts of the citizens of the town and regarded by school 
officials as a legitimate part of the year's work for the 
children, but it had three serious limitations : 

First, the exhibits remained too much a matter of 
mere entertainment to satisfy the leaders in the move- 



THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ment, who regarded them as an earnest effort to promote 
genuine art education and culture in the community. 

Second, the time at the end of the school year left 
but little opportunity for the teacher to talk over the 
pictures with the children and fix permanent ideals in 
their minds. 

Third, there was no suitable place to display the per- 
manent collection of paintings which the Art Association 
was gradually acquiring by special gift and by purchase 
with the Reid purchase fund of five hundred dollars given 
by a former Richmond citizen. In other words, all the 
Richmond art lovers needed was an art gallery where 
their collection might hang permanently and where 
there would be time and opportunity for works of art 
to make a more lasting impression both on the children 
and citizens. 

Gallery in High School. — Here, again, the inevitable 
happened. The seeming miracle of a real art gallery in 
a high school building followed, naturally, the continuous 
development of art culture in this city. 

After the school officials and Art Association had co- 
operated in holding free art exhibits for fourteen years 
the school board deemed them of such important edu- 
cational value as to justify including an art gallery in 
the new high school then being built. 

This building was designed by William B. Ittner, of 
Saint Louis, to whose imagination the unusual feature of 
an art gallery at once appealed as a suggestive motif to 
include in the facade of the building, with what effective 
charm the accompanying photograph shows. School- 
houses as near as may be ought always to be beautiful 
and to provide such conditions, at least, in our country 
that architects need not follow traditions but may in* 







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THE ART CENTRE OF THE COMMUNITY 699 

corporate something truly expressive of our national 
life. 

The gallery occupies the space on the third floor above 
the auditorium and has three rooms — one large room, 
twenty-five feet by forty-eight feet, opening on one 
side into two smaller rooms, twenty-four by thirty-five, 
which have openings between. This arrangement makes 
easy the handling of crowds and gives opportunity for 
vistas so essential in the good hanging of large pictures 
requiring distance. The larger gallery opens on the 
right into the library and there are two entrances from 
the corridor into the galleries, as the diagram shows. 




Corridor 



The walls are ceiled with boards over plaster ten feet 
high to the base of the cove, which rises to the inner sky- 
light of diffusing glass. The rooms are supplied with 
excellent electric light in trough reflectors. The ceiled 
walls are covered first with stout brown paper over which 



700 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

is fitted and stretched a background of all-wool terry of a 
bronze-gray-green in which no one of these colors pre- 
dominates, making an ideal background into which 
frames retire and from which paintings can stand out. 
This terry background, besides being ideal in color and 
texture, is very durable and has also the great advan- 
tage of taking the nails in its mesh without injury. Thus, 
with the board ceiling behind, it is possible, in hang- 
ing pictures, to drive nails wherever an artistic arrange- 
ment requires. 

Between the entrance doors in the corridor the wall 
is recessed to contain a stone basin for the "Tortoise 
Fountain," in bronze, by Janet Scudder, an Indiana 
woman. This fountain was given to the Art Association 
by a New York man who was once a pupil in the old 
Richmond High School and wished to help the cause of 
art in his native city. 

This delightful work of art, with its ceaseless tinkle of 
falling water and its setting of greenery, lies in the daily 
path of the pupils, unknowingly, perhaps, to them but 
surely, fixing in their forming minds an ideal of beauty 
which will remain for all time an ideal, lifting their taste 
above the ugly and commonplace. 

Management. — To obviate any uncertainty in regard 
to the management of this public art gallery, as it was 
named, an agreement was entered into whereby the 
school board was to furnish the gallery, light, curator, 
and janitor service, and the Art Association to hang its 
permanent collection of works of art in the gallery, ar- 
range all exhibits to be shown there, paying the ex- 
penses thereof, except the drawing and manual- training 
exhibits of the public schools. This arrangement has 
worked out most satisfactorily. 



THE ART CENTRE OF THE COMMUNITY 701 

Schedule of Exhibits for One Season. — During the 
season of 191 2-13 nine exhibits were held, rotating in 
such manner that something was nearly always in the 
gallery. 

The following is the schedule: 

October 1-27, 1912: "The Sixteenth Annual Exhibi- 
tion of American Paintings." Seventy-five oils and 
water-colors, mostly by New York artists. This exhibit 
was also shown on a circuit of fifteen other cities in the 
Middle West. 

November 8-29, 1912: "The Sixteenth Annual Ex- 
hibition by Indiana Artists." One hundred and twenty- 
three paintings and seventy-five pieces of handicraft. A 
selected group of fifty paintings was afterward shown on 
a circuit of eight Indiana cities. 

December 1-10, 1912: Spanish paintings and color 
prints of paintings in the Prado Gallery, Madrid, loaned 
by W. D. Foulke, of Richmond. 

December 14, 1912-January 1, 1913: Hand-colored 
prints, series of the Abbey Holy Grail decorations in the 
Boston Public Library, loaned by Curtis and Cameron. 

January 1-29, 1913: Philadelphia Water-Color Club 
Exhibit of eighty-one water-colors and pastels. 

February 12-March 31, 1913: Oil paintings, forty, by 
Mr. and Mrs. J. Ottis Adams, of Brookville, Ind. 

April 8-1 1, 1913: Japanese prints, stencils, and kake- 
monos, loaned by Mrs. Virgil Lockwood, Indianapolis. 

June 1-13, 1913: Sixteenth Annual Exhibition of the 
Drawing and Manual-Training Departments of the 
Richmond Public Schools. 

There were also held in the gallery, during this season, 
eighteen meetings of women's clubs, twenty-one recep- 
tions for clubs and schools, and twelve art lectures, be- 



702 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

sides many art lessons for teachers and pupils. The 
number of visitors in the gallery for the season was 
eleven thousand three hundred and twenty-four. 

Opportunity for New Relationships. — The foregoing 
brief statement of facts, taken from the president's an- 
nual report to the Art Association, does not disclose, ex- 
cept to the experienced in such work, their far-reaching 
influence. When the principal and teachers of a ward 
or high school hold an evening reception — which happens 
many times during the year — to the parents and children 
of their school in beautiful art galleries, with paintings, 
music, good clothes, good manners, refreshments, it 
means the establishment of a new relationship between 
teachers and pupils more intimate and human than that 
of the schoolroom, and under elevating and refining 
conditions superior to any known elsewhere by many 
pupils and parents. It means, too, the possibility of 
socializing beauty and art, which, in a country where 
the people are sovereign, is fundamentally essential to 
the "beautiful America" of which we dream. 

Use by High School. — The gallery is a special class- 
room for the high school pupils where they learn the 
languages of form and color. They see the exhibits with 
the drawing teacher and learn about artists from their 
works, becoming familiar with their ideals and expres- 
sions of beauty, studying their technic by making small 
sketches of the paintings in colored chalks or water-col- 
ors. Thus they acquire the ability to discriminate be- 
tween what is good and what is bad in art. This is 
taste. 

Chromos cannot be sold to all the graduates of the 
Richmond High School. This was probably possible 
sixteen years ago. 




|3 



C 

< 



THE ART CENTRE OF THE COMMUNITY 703 

The English teachers make good use of the exhibits 
for themes, for here is, in truth, something concrete, visi- 
ble, and near at hand to write and talk about. Of 
course interest runs high. 

By Grades. — It is an interesting sight to see fifty 
sixth-grade pupils, seated on the gallery floor before one 
of Elizabeth Nourse's most beautiful paintings, answer- 
ing all the teacher's questions as to why the figures were 
placed on the canvas as they are, where the artist 
stood when painting the picture, what was on the level 
of her eye, where the window was that let in the light 
so beautifully on the baby's face, why the mother's dress 
was blue instead of red, and, finally, what was the 
really beautiful thing the picture had to say, to which 
the worst boy in the class answers quite solemnly: "A 
mother and her little baby." 

Would any one contend for a moment that arithmetic 
would have a more valuable influence on the life of that 
boy than this kind of art study or that any drill sub- 
ject can so function? Yet he has years of arithmetic 
and only rare days of art, even in favored Richmond. 

By Clubs.— The Art Study Committee of the Art 
Association meets in the gallery to study the exhibits 
with the aid of lectures and the best works on modern 
art, as, for instance, "Landscape Painting," by Birge 
Harrison. The various women's clubs of the city visit 
the gallery to hear talks on the exhibits. The Music 
Study Club has placed pianos in the gallery and uses 
this as a regular meeting-place. 

By Local Artists. — To the local painters and crafts- 
men the gallery furnishes a place to display their own 
work and the opportunity in the passing exhibits to get 
help and inspiration from the work of their contempo- 



704 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

raries in art. That this has been valuable to them is 
shown in the remarkable improvement in their work 
during the years of these exhibits. 

This Richmond community has profited by the work 
of its local painters and has learned from them to see its 
own familiar landscape with new, "seeing" eyes, to get 
the artist's point of view, and to love first when they see 
them painted things they had passed, perhaps, a hun- 
dred times, nor cared to see, as Browning so well says it. 

Open Days. — The art gallery is open to the public 
during all school hours, Saturday and Sunday after- 
noons, night-school evenings, and many special evenings. 

Artistic catalogues are sold for ten cents, containing 
much information about the pictures and artists. 

Permanent Collection of Works of Art. — The perma- 
nent collection of the Art Association hangs in one of the 
smaller galleries and is always on view. It contains the 
following works of art : 



1899 
1900 
1901 
1901 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1903 
1904 



The Art Association Purchases 

T. C. Steele, "Whitewater Valley." 

J. E. Bundy, "Blue Spring." 

Mrs. H. St. John, "Roses." 

John Vanderpoel, "Sunlight and Shadow." 

Pauline D. Rudolph, "In Wonderland." 

Charles Curran, "Building the Dam." 

R. B. Grulle, "In Verdure Clad." 

Frank Girardin, "Sunshine and Shadow." 

Charles Conner, "November Day." 

Purchased with the Reh> Purchase Fund 



1903. Henry Mosler, "The Duett." 

1904. Ben Foster, "Late Afternoon, Litchfield Hills." 

1905. Leonard Ochtman, "Old Pastures." 

1906. H. M. Walcott, "Hare and Hounds." 



THE ART CENTRE OF THE COMMUNITY 705 

1907. Frank V. DuMond, "At the Well." 

1908. Albert L. Groll, "The Hopi Mesa." 

1909. Robert Reid, "Peonies." 

1910. John C. Johansen, "Fiesole, Florence." 

Gifts to the Art Association 

1902. J. Ottis Adams, "A Summer Afternoon." (Presented 
by Tuesday Aftermath Club.) 

1909. Janet Scudder, "The Tortoise Fountain." (Presented 

by Warner Leeds.) 

1910. Gladys H. Wilkinson, "A Corner in the Studio." (Whit- 

ney-Hoff Museum Purchase, presented by Inter- 
national Art Union, Paris.) 

1910. Robert W. Grafton, "Portrait, Timothy Nicholson." 

(Indefinite loan by Nicholson family.) 

191 1. E. T. Hurley, Three etchings. (Presented by E. T. 

Hurley.) 

191 1. Misses Overbeck, "Vase, Overbeck Pottery." (Pre- 

sented by the Misses Overbeck.) 

191 2. Walter Shirlaw, Sketches, three oils, one water-color. 

(Presented by Mrs. Walter Shirlaw.) 

Conclusion. — This Richmond experience seems to 
demonstrate that an art gallery for art exhibits fills a 
deficiency in our high school education and meets the 
natural human demand for beauty in life. It proves 
that an art gallery is as useful in a high school as is a 
laboratory or a gymnasium, a library or an auditorium, 
and that it is as interesting and educative for children to 
learn about art and artists as about war and warriors or 
any other of the subjects that make up the curriculum. 

The qualities possessed by a work of art — unity, sin- 
cerity, harmony, simplicity, idealism, beauty — stand in 
closer relation to the building of a perfect life than the 
laws of physics or chemistry; and the "whole boy" is 
to be educated for complete living. 



706 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

The art gallery cannot be omitted from the future high 
school, which more and more is to become the people's 
college if we would develop a nation of completely edu- 
cated people, with reverence for the beauty of the earth 
and a passion for recording the fine ideals of our nation 
in enduring art forms that will add charm to our com- 
mon life, and to our splendid democratic institutions 
something of the "glory that was Greece and the 
grandeur that was Rome." 

Henry Turner Bailey thus voices his appreciation of 
this art movement in The School Arts Book for April, 
1912: 

"The Richmond people have produced a model educa- 
tional institution. Think of it! A kitchen, a gymna- 
sium, and the oldest of the constructive arts on the 
ground floor, and a library and an art gallery on top! 
Verily the people who have turned the educational world 
right side up at last live in Richmond, Ind. They have 
put the solid living-rooms of the manual worker beneath, 
and the ' chambers of imagery' of the poet and artist 
above; they have builded at last a sure house, fully 
equipped for every good work and word, a fit home in 
which to bring up children who shall be worthy citizens 
of a republic." 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE MORAL AGENCIES AFFECTING THE HIGH 
SCHOOL STUDENT 

John Calvin Hanna, A.M. 

STATE SUPERVISOR OF HIGH SCHOOLS, ILLINOIS, FORMERLY PRINCIPAL 

OF OAK PARK AND RIVER FOREST TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL, 

OAK PARK, ILL. 

A Reasonable Classification. — The agencies that have 
had a part in the moral training of men have been fairly 
classified by Professor Tufts under three heads: 

(i) What may be called indirect agencies; that is, 
those through which is produced a moral result, even 
though such a result is not consciously intended. Ex- 
amples may be given as follows : 

Work undertaken to earn a living is one of the most 
effective agencies in developing responsible conduct. 
Family life, though entered into not at all with a moral 
purpose, naturally becomes a school of kindness and 
sympathy. The company of one's fellows, sought per- 
haps for economic gain or in obedience to the herding 
instinct, leads to interchanges of goods and rendering of 
services and ideas which undermine the primitive dis- 
trust and hostility of men. Struggles for mastery or for 
liberty or for possession, though prompted by conflict- 
ing interests, force men to closer union to establish order 
and to think of rights and justice. 

707 



708 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

(2) Agencies of Custom. — Certain ways of acting 
started by society, sometimes on rational grounds, some- 
times through chance, have come to be regarded as im- 
portant. These judgments of society are impressed upon 
all members through praise or ridicule or blame, through 
taboos, or even through force. By drill of ritual or cere- 
monial, by investing with sacredness through art and 
music, the members of society are trained to observance 
of these ways. Many rules of religion, etiquette, and 
other fields of behavior are thus developed. 

(3) Direct Agencies of Reflective Morality. — Moral lead- 
ers have arisen who have set forth clearly and directly 
moral standards or have persuaded to moral advance. 
These have most readily found a mission when old 
customs have become unsuited to new conditions. 
Moses, Isaiah, Socrates, Jesus are familiar examples. 

Space has been given to this sensible and important 
classification in order to remind students of the moral 
agencies which affect the high school pupil, and that all 
these agencies suggested by and belonging under these 
categories must be included and reckoned with. 

The School Not the Only Agency.— The question as to 
the moral development of any individual youth in a high 
school will be determined not alone by any system of 
moral instruction that may be given in the schools, nor 
alone by the character and influence of his teachers, nor 
alone by the influence of his fellow pupils, nor alone by 
the routine of the activities of the school, official and 
unofficial, nor alone by all of these together. It is as 
truly important in estimating the final outcome in his 
matured character to know what is the nature of the 
family life of which he forms a part, the economic prob- 
lems and responsibilities that are carried by that family 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 709 

and by its members, including himself, the pressure of 
work outside of school upon the youth, the relation of his 
life to the political movements that so mightily influence 
and are influenced by private life. It will be necessary 
to know what he has to do with his neighbors and how, 
what his training, conscious and unconscious, has been 
and is in the tangled details of social and religious life. 
It will be necessary to know what influence has been 
exerted on him directly or indirectly by the great moral 
leaders through the sanctions and pressures of the vari- 
ous agencies that have sprung from these sources. 

Is the boy's father a millionaire, and does the boy have 
a valet at home? Does he get up at four o'clock to look 
after a newspaper route? 

Is he accustomed to finger-bowls and dinner clothes? 
Does he get his midday meal from a tin pail or from a 
free-lunch counter? 

Does he attend a catechism class regularly? Which 
occupies him on Sunday mornings — the international 
lessons or the comic supplements? 

Whatever may be said by the anxious theorist as to 
the burden resting upon the public school for the moral 
care of the children and youth of the country, all these 
other agencies do work and always will work and ought 
to work actively, constantly, and to an important de- 
gree in accomplishing the moral development of the 
young. 

Utilize All Agencies. — Moreover, every plan and intel- 
ligent effort to exert an uplift upon high school pupils 
through the agencies that are effective in and through 
the school must take into account all of these outside 
influences, must study and adapt and utilize every one 
of these in order not only to accomplish the very best 



710 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

results but even oftentimes to escape disaster and 
ridicule. A failure on the part of schools to face and 
grapple with these other moral agencies of whatever 
sort and of whatever origin often leads the youth to 
defy or to laugh at the anxious, well-meant efforts of 
the teachers in whose hands he is placed or, at any rate, 
to appear almost wholly impervious to the influences 
which the school exerts. A college classmate of mine not 
long ago unearthed a crude and long-forgotten cartoon 
for which my pencil was responsible. The art was nil, 
the wit was not impressive, and the aptness of the satire 
to the occasion may not have been clear, but the lesson 
in it was based on sound pedagogy. The faculty, repre- 
sented by an anxious hen mother, stood on the bank of 
a puddle vainly urging certain recreant seniors, typified 
by complacent, paddling ducklings, to come back to the 
bank like good chicks. 

Ignoring the Facts. — Too often we attempt to ignore 
the eternal facts of society in dealing with children. 
And this "we" means the very earnest and very igno- 
rant young schoolma'am fresh from the university; it 
means the " experienced " high school principal (whose 
experience, like the wisdom of the famous oculist, has, 
perhaps, been obtained by " spoiling a peck of eyes"); 
it means no less the psychologists and other wise 
men who attack the problem from the safe standpoint 
of philosophic theory, starting, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, with the convenient assumption not only that 
the school ought to take entire charge of the child's 
moral training but that it can so take charge and can, 
if the problem be handled according to wise theories of 
moral conduct, take the youthful soul, unformed and 
plastic, mould it into beauty, breathe into its nostrils the 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 711 

breath of spiritual life, and then point with pride to its 
own handiwork, saying: "Behold the perfect man and 
woman of my creation!" To an unkind and coldly 
scientific casual inspector the result sometimes reminds 
one of the philosopher who ridiculed Plato's definition of 
a man — "a featherless biped" — by plucking a goose and 
exclaiming: " Behold Plato's man!" 

What Is the School's Responsibility? — What, then, is 
the extent of the school's responsibility for moral train- 
ing and wherein does it lie? These are questions of pe- 
culiar importance in a democracy where the school is 
maintained by the state. The school is the "main reli- 
ance for democratic optimism." The question whether 
the experiment of self-government, now in its second 
century, is to be a permanent success depends for its 
answer, in the opinion of many besides President Eliot, 
on the public school. 

Alice Freeman Palmer's definition of the moral edu- 
cation of a child, that it "consists in imparting to him 
the three qualities, obedience, sympathy, dignity," would 
seem to reach to the essence of the demands for a safe 
citizenship. Humboldt wisely said : "Whatever we wish 
to see introduced into the life of a nation must be first 
introduced into the school." 

The limitation is suggested by Dewey's remark that, 
"apart from participation in social life, the school has 
no moral end nor aim." 

Co-operation Necessary. — Because of the interrelation, 
intentional or not, of the many influences suggested 
above as inevitable moral agencies, it is not only wise 
but necessary that between these institutions, home, 
school, church, state, in so far as conscious, each of its 
own particular aim, there should be intelligent and 
harmonious co-operation. 



712 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Why Are There Bad Boys and Girls? — Some one asked 
the question: "If the schools are doing so much for 
character building, why are there so many bad boys and 
girls?" This inquiry, made every day in one form or 
another and in one spirit or another, must be faced; and 
it is answered thoughtfully and temporarily by George 
H. Martin in an article in Religious Education. " What," 
says he, "confronts a child on looking away from the 
school and its teaching? He finds in the home laxity 
of discipline and little insistence on even the outward 
marks of respect. He does not find in the world that 
practice of justice and fair dealing that he has been led 
to respect. He cannot help seeing that fraud and chi- 
canery and dishonesty are prevalent and their practice 
by the people in good society is winked at and condoned. 
In business and politics and often in social affairs he 
learns that a sacred regard for truth is not considered 
consistent with a workable policy. He finds that 'man's 
inhumanity to man' still ' makes countless thousands 
mourn.' When he has formed in school a standard of 
temperate and frugal living he is confronted in his own 
home by domestic waste and expenditure for unnecessary 
luxury and on every corner by a drinking saloon licensed 
by public authority. He has been taught industry, and 
he sees the idle rich faring sumptuously every day and 
the idle poor supported at public expense. And as for 
chastity, he finds that society insists upon it only for 
women. He sees every form of vice made heroic in the 
yellow journal and on the yellow stage." A depressing 
outlook, truly, for a permanent moral uplift to come 
from the public school, if that institution must alone 
carry the responsibility! 

In Loco Parentis. — When we say that the teacher 
stands in loco parentis we do not mean it in reality. If, 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 713 

it were to be so, then woe unto the foundation of society, 
which is not the school but the family! Said the wisest 
of Greek dramatists in knowledge of human nature: 
"The errors of the parents the gods turn to the undoing 
of their children." 

No attacks upon the school by critics, no discussion of 
the theoretical questions involved, no consensus of the 
wise men, no pouring out of treasure by the public, no 
zeal on the part of trained and devoted leaders will ever 
place the teacher in loco parentis. God made the fam- 
ily; man made the schools. 

The Eternal Problem. — The magnitude of the problem 
of the moral education of the young is not yet within 
our comprehensive grasp. It must be more clearly and 
vitally related to the institutions that are, that ever have 
been, and that always will be. 

No one of these institutions can solve the eternal 
problem alone. Even religion cannot solve it alone for 
adolescent youth and its needs. The secondary school 
is created for the development of character in youth, 
but the father and mother cannot evade the responsi- 
bility for themselves. 

The Responsibility of the Family. — Whatever the 
school may or may not be able to do, it is in the home 
in which in whole or in part that are determined habits 
of industry, conceptions of God, duty, honor, honesty, 
emotional reactions of many sorts, habits of speech, 
motor reactions as posture, carriage, etc., habits of obedi- 
ence, industry, .and cleanliness, and in large measure the 
standards of conduct. If there were no other proof of 
this assertion, we must not forget that for many of these 
things the school gets the child too late. The habit of 
obedience, or disobedience, for example, is formed before 



714 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the child is two years old. As Doctor Athearn has put 
it: " The school has too long been the dumping-ground 
for the problems of home." 

Teach the Family. — Of course, the weakness of family 
training does not dispose of the question for the devoted 
student of life problems. The reforms of society must 
begin somewhere and they must come slowly. It is for 
the school, in so far as opportunity and resources fit it 
for the task, not to do the work for the family but to 
teach the family to do certain work for itself. 

The Impossible and the Possible. — This sounds like 
attempting to solve a problem by doubling or trebling 
that problem. But there is much that teachers can do. 
We may and we must cease to consider ourselves as 
only "servants of the people" and remember that we 
are a part of the people with rights and duties as mould- 
ers of public opinion. We must not forget that we con- 
trol the educational press and that the religious and 
secular press is largely open to our contributions. We 
must keep in mind the many gatherings, school exhibi- 
tions, conventions, and the like where the utterances 
of teachers are listened to. Why not for the next dec- 
ade make this the teachers' cry and the teachers' aim: 
"Back to home life." 1 

School Momentum. — It is worth while to remember 
that the very momentum of school activity, highly or- 
ganized as it is and wholly devoted in theory to uplift, 
will carry over into the home much of what is worth 
while, to set in motion there, in spite of moral inertia, 
the currents of life. 

An Unorganized Field of Inquiry. — A large field this 
and one that is ploughed largely at haphazard, with 

1 Walter S. Athearn, Religious Education, 5, 124-130. 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 715 

hardly a systematic furrowing, let alone an intelligent 
ordering of seeding and harvesting. Harris said in re- 
gard to moral training in the public schools: " There 
is no topic concerning which the suggestions made are 
more idle and unprofitable." After literally wading 
through thick volumes of the utterances of jurists and 
moralists and statesmen and philanthropists and pro- 
fessors and " practical" teachers, a humble student can 
bless the good doctor for his somewhat cynical utterance. 
And yet amid all the chaff there are grains of wheat. 
There are bright sayings, profound and logical argu- 
ments, sharp utterances that like lightning clear the 
murky atmosphere of pedagogical platitude. 

Some Helpful Suggestions. — Here is a handful of wise 
and practical suggestions gathered almost at random and 
placed here for the encouragement (as the writer was 
encouraged) of those who grow weary of analyzing pon- 
derous bibliographies : 

(a) " Thinkers regard as the chief factor in man's as- 
cent from the brute his increasing brain capacity and 
consequent thereupon his increasing power of memory 
— in other words, the increasing power of his ideas over 
his instincts." — (F. H. Haywood, in Sadler's " Interna- 
tional Inquiry into Moral Training in Schools.") 

(b) fl Loose, slipshod work has an immoral effect upon 
the student." — (C. W. Barnes, National Education Asso- 
ciation Proceedings, 1909.) 

(c) The whole suggestive outline of Brumbaugh, "The 
Problem Stated," in the Report of the National Educa- 
tional Commission on Moral Education, 191 1 — particu- 
larly his definition of the fields of elementary, secondary, 
and higher education in this region. 

{d) David R. Porter's statement, after a depressing 



716 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

array of data as to low moral conditions in high schools, 
that "in most cases evils exist because boys are igno- 
rant, not because they are vicious," and that " there is no 
difficulty in winning support in seeking better things." 

(e) His interesting suggestion, now in process of ex- 
periment in many places, that a purely voluntary moral 
and religious movement may succeed when compulsory 
moral and religious training must fail, even if it were 
possible to attempt it. 

Three Natural Stages. — There must be a sound psy- 
chology at the basis of every intelligent effort to furnish 
moral training in the high school. The clear recogni- 
tion of the three natural phases of moral activity corre- 
sponding to the development of the mind from childhood 
through adolescence to manhood is helpful here; the 
three stages when successively fear, faith, and insight 
are each the guiding star for the soul in meeting moral 
questions. The second of these must control in the 
adolescent stage, and this goal helps to emphasize the 
importance of the personal relation between teacher and 
pupil at this age. There must be a hero; it will be the 
teacher if he is fit and wise. 

This longing for a hero is a mighty factor to the ad- 
vantage of the high school teacher, provided always that 
the work properly belonging to the age of childhood has 
been well done, and that, of course, is the work of form- 
ing the habit of obedience. The story is in point of 
the question asked of George Washington's mother by 
French officers at the banquet after CornwalhVs surren- 
der, how she had made so great a man, and her reply: 
"I taught George to obey." 

An Illustration. — An illustration of the necessity of 
recognizing this all-important factor in the psychology 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 717 

of the adolescent is that, as Porter puts it: "The strong- 
est influence on high school boys in the United States 
to-day is the influence of college men. Home, church, 
politics do not begin to exert such influence as (for ex- 
ample) college athletics and college fraternities." The 
high school boy must have his hero, and he will imitate 
his vices as readily at least as his virtues. 

How to Use Hero-Worship. — -It is here that there is a 
point of contact to be watched most closely between the 
worship of the college man and athlete on the one hand 
and his power for discipline in the handling of boys occu- 
pied in athletics. The boy soon comes to see that the 
habits of thoroughness, obedience, hard work, and co- 
operation (which means the opposite of selfishness and 
self-conceit) are called for as truly and as inevitably when 
he follows his hero on the athletic field as when he faces 
his instructor in the class. 

The Adolescent Collapse. — We must not complain 
when we discover in the individual boy or girl that fact 
which is present in the adolescent period of all boys or 
girls — namely, that " during this period there is a pro- 
gressive loss of interest in the things the school deals 
with; that there is a sense of escape from connections 
that have held the child and a marked disinclination to 
make other connections. The blame for this collapse 
cannot be laid entirely upon the schools, but we must 
recognize and help to make it clear to those who control 
the springs of society that the moral problems of this 
dangerous period will not be solved until the individual 
can drift easily out of the school into organizations 
whose influence is in the direction of clean activity." 

School Virtues and Life Virtues. — Too often the dis- 
cussion of moral training in the high school is narrowed 



718 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

to the possibilities of inculcating what are commonly 
enumerated as the "school virtues." President Eliot 
wisely insists that we must teach children the funda- 
mental truths that lie at the foundation of the demo- 
cratic social theory. These he enumerates briefly as 
follows: "ist, the intimate interdependence of each hu- 
man individual on a multitude of other individuals, not 
in infancy alone but at every moment of life — a depen- 
dence which increases with civilization and with the de- 
velopment of urban life; 2d, the essential unity of a 
democratic community in spite of endless diversities of 
functions, capacity, and achievement among the indi- 
viduals who compose the community; 3d, that service 
rendered to others is the surest source of one's own satis- 
faction and happiness (this doctrine is a tap-root of 
private happiness among all classes and conditions of 
man, but in a democracy it is important to public hap- 
piness and well-being) ; 4th, to see and utilize the means 
of happiness which lie about them in the beauties and 
splendor of nature; 5th, what the democratic nobility is 
— fidelity to all forms of duty which demand courage, 
self-denial, and zeal, and loyal devotion to the demo- 
cratic ideals of freedom, serviceableness, unity, tolera- 
tion, public justice, and public joyfulness." 

This broad platform for moral instruction I have 
quoted by way of contrast to the narrower list some- 
times enumerated as the "school virtues" and insisted 
upon instead of what may be called the "life duties." 
The danger to the child is great; he is "born with a 
natural desire to give out, to do, to serve." The school 
virtues enumerated by Harris are: (1) regularity, (2) 
punctuality, (3) silence, (4) industry. White adds: (5) 
neatness, (6) accuracy, (7) obedience. But Charles 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 719 

Edward Rugh, in the famous California prize essay, 
points out that the successful bank robber would practise 
all of them in a single robbery! These are the mint and 
anise and cumin, tithes proper to pay, but let us not, 
even with adolescents, neglect the weightier matters of 
the law; or, if they are to be considered fundamental to 
the well-being of society, let us admit it, but let us bear 
in mind that, if the school is to develop these good habits, 
all of them should have become second nature to the 
child by the time it reaches adolescence. 

The Newer Aim of Education. — The aim of education, 
if it is to include secondary education — and that is now 
beyond the stage of argument with all but those whose 
faces are set hopelessly backward — is something more and 
broader and higher than the development of the virtues 
named above, important as they are. Social efficiency, 
in the words of W. C. Bagley, "is becoming the con- 
scious aim of all educational effort." He insists, and in 
our saner moments we all believe, that, if those who come 
to the teacher for instruction and training act in no way 
more effectively after they leave him than they would 
have acted had they never come under his influence, 
then his work as a teacher must be adjudged a failure. 
Washington Gladden, in pleading for effective educa- 
tional unity, asserts that, no matter what the intellec- 
tual achievements of the schools may be, they shall be 
deemed to have wholly failed of their highest function 
if they do not give us good men and women. Character 
is surely the ultimate aim of education, and if the imme- 
diate aim of the successful completion of the task of the 
hour, of the day, or the course is not kept in direct line 
with this the ultimate aim it is time to inquire what is 
wrong with the system. 



720 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Why Moral Training Is Necessary. — The pupil should 
be trained for efficiency — to make a living; the industrial 
aim is a right one, but the state insists that this is not 
all. It is not sufficient in a democracy that the educa- 
tion furnished by the state should be such as to prevent 
its products from becoming economic charges upon the 
body politic; they must be trained to be fit for citizen- 
ship, and this training is largely a moral training. It is 
necessary for the state to see to this if all inhabitants 
are trained to become citizens. There must be moral 
training, and the state cannot halt because of the sensi- 
tiveness of this or that avowed religious or moral in- 
stitution. De minimis non curat lex. 

Patriotism as a Basis. — The state's education must 
develop patriotism as a moral quality, and all the means 
to that end are commendable moral agencies. No 
words of Lincoln are more to be pondered by those who 
train the young, whether parent, priest, or pedagogue, 
than these: "I like to see a man proud of the place in 
which he lives. I like to see a man who lives in it so 
that his place will be proud of him. Be honest, but 
hate no one; overturn a man's wrong-doing, but do not 
overturn him unless it must be done in overturning his 
wrong. Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand 
with him while he is right, and part with him when he 
goes wrong." 

One of the epoch-making state documents of all time 
is the Japanese Imperial Rescript of 1890, which makes 
patriotism the basis of the moral training consciously 
inserted in their school system as the one thing lacking 
when that wonderful new-born nation borrowed the 
American public school system. It behooves us to see 
whether we can do better than to imitate our imitators. 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 721 

The ground for Roosevelt's square deal in governmen- 
tal affairs was that it is demanded by the welfare of 
the community. Our patriotism is ready to hand as a 
means of moral training, for, as pointed out by Munster- 
berg, it is unique in that it is directed neither to the soil 
nor the citizen but to a system of ideas — and ideals — 
respecting society, and is a community of purpose for 
their realization. 

The most dangerous element in the later Roman re- 
public was that group of youth corrupted by personal 
vices and absorbed by schemes for overthrowing their 
country — dissipated and disloyal. As Charles Whitney 
Williams declares, patriotism is the one social force fit- 
ted above all others for accomplishing the gravest con- 
ceivable purposes. The great wisdom of Bismarck con- 
sisted largely in his clear recognition of this truth. It 
is here that Christianity, as it is developed in the modern 
world, has been too individualistic to exert the greatest 
force where broad social unity in effort and effect is 
vital. 

Recognition by the State. — The statute-books of the 
various States not only recognize the importance of 
morality as a foundation for the character necessary to 
safe citizenship, but in many cases they require the 
teacher to impress upon his pupils, both by example and 
precept, directly and indirectly, the principles of truth, 
justice, morality, patriotism, and refinement, which reach 
to the roots of character and, therefore, to the fruit of 
safe citizenship. 

These actual laws may be safely and wisely taught, 
even directly, to the youth without stirring up religious 
dissension. The spirit of these laws cannot be miscon- 
strued. 



722 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Have the Schools Done Well? — The specific work of 
the public school for years has been recognized in vari- 
ous ways as training for citizenship, and it must be ad- 
mitted that the school has done its work well in giving 
the state trained minds. It is mainly true that what- 
ever ills in this regard America is suffering from they are 
not ills that the public schools, under this conception of 
their function, are supposed to remedy. 

The Broader Conception. — There is, however, a big- 
ger conception of the purpose of the schools than either 
the industrial aim or the training directly for the duties 
of citizenship. The old view of training for citizenship, 
of fitting the young to vote intelligently and to have a 
disposition to obey the laws, is too narrow a view of the 
function of the public school. In the words of Dewey: 
"The child is an organic whole, intellectually, socially, 
and morally as well as physically." He is to be "not 
only a voter and a subject of law, but also a member of 
a family, probably a parent, also a worker; furthermore, 
he is to be a member of some neighborhood or commu- 
nity and must contribute to the values of life and add to 
the decencies and graces of civilization wherever he is." 

Preparation for this variety of function means " train- 
ing in science, art, and history; in the command of 
fundamental methods of inquiry and the fundamental 
tools of intercourse and communication. It means a 
trained mind, a sound body, a skilful eye and hand; 
and no less important, it means the development of 
habits of industry, perseverance, and general service- 
ableness." The product of this preparation must, in 
America, be democratic and progressive; we must not 
be deceived into the silly position apparently main- 
tained by some advocates of vocational education of 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 723 

educating the child for any fixed station in life. Not 
only the industrial but the cultural aim is the American 
ideal. Here, as so often, "the answer to which is both" 

And how closely all these aims are linked! Witmer 
suggests that the first reader instead of starting off, " See 
the kitty!" should start off, "See the tooth-brush! " and 
he makes a convincing argument in defence of his sug- 
gestion. 

The School and the Family. — Here we come to the 
question of the overloaded teacher. Shall all these 
things be loaded upon the poor teacher? Must the 
schools be charged with the physical, intellectual, social, 
moral welfare of the child? Shall he be farmed out 
utterly to the school? What are we coming to? Is 
America a modern Sparta? Nay, verily — not in the 
opinion or wish of the writer, as has been sufficiently 
shown already. The family, for its own sake, must 
retain and live up to its responsibilities in all these re- 
gards, but the school, a special institution established 
by the family and taken over by the state to perform 
more conveniently and economically and effectively cer- 
tain functions of the family and to provide the state 
with material for the safe handling of self-government, 
may reasonably modify its methods, its curriculum, its 
standard of training for teachers, its attitude toward 
physical, political, and social as well as moral problems 
so as to accomplish two things: ist, to fit the child for 
life in all its many phases of one organic whole; and, 2d, 
to improve, through this changed and broadened con- 
ception of the school's function, the work that it does in 
the older and more beaten paths of travel. Moral 
training must be part and parcel of all the processes of 
education. Character making is the aim of it all, from 



724 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

algebra to athletics. Every problem, every element, 
every equipment, every activity must have and will have 
part in the work of moral agencies. 

Material Moral Agencies. — The arrangement and 
equipment of a building, the selection and training of a 
janitor — every material element is a moral element and, 
whether we will or no, enters into the moral training of 
the children and youth in the schools. 

Direct Moral Instruction. — The battle as to direct 
moral instruction in the public schools has been fought 
with varying result and still rages. If I am not mis- 
taken, the latest utterance of G. Stanley Hall is in favor 
of talks by the teachers to the school on a list of moral 
subjects, which he characterizes as "nothing more nor 
less than conscience building." Many lists and many 
suggestions have been presented, and yet the consensus 
of opinion seems to confirm R. R. Reeder's belief that 
"one moral experience is worth more than a score of 
formal lessons on morality." There is practical wisdom 
in the advice of the Widow O'Callahan quoted by Mar- 
garet E. Shallenberger: "It is my belafe that's what 
makes some b'ys so unruly — takin' 'em at the wrong 
toime. Sure and b'ys has their feelin's loike the rest 
of the world. Spake to 'em by their lone silves when 
you've aught to say to 'em. There's niver a man of 
'em all would loike being bawled at in a crowd about 
somethin' that needed thinkin' over." Sound pedagogy 
— because it recognizes boy (and girl) nature as it is. 
It is not a loss of time to quote here some of the "ways" 
suggested by this writer in which we should train for 
right conduct (and this for high schools in particular) : 

i. In a way to arouse and sustain thought. 
2. In a way to produce excitement. 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 725 

3. In a way to stimulate good action rather than emphasize 
the bad. 

4. In a way to develop proper humility. 

5. In a way to develop responsibility for the welfare of others. 

6. In a way to form standards of conduct applicable anywhere. 

7. In a way to produce right conduct. 

Each of the above might furnish a theme for a chap- 
ter, but the second and fifth are of especial practical 
importance. 

Make It Attractive. — A moral truth, a rule of conduct 
must be given an attractive aspect if it is to win respect 
from the unsettled soul of the adolescent. Being good 
and doing good are often made too tame. There is no 
reason at all why the exercise of good conduct should not 
often be very exciting. Let us not forget the hankering 
for a hero that belongs to this age. If surprises are not 
possible in the routine of school life, we may utilize 
holiday occasions, music, dramatics, and turn their 
powerful influence in this direction. 

Daily Work as a Moral Agency. — There is nothing 
more clearly established by the experience of real teach- 
ers, whether it be generally accepted by theorists or not, 
than that the daily routine of school life, if directed in the 
right way, may become a moral agency as powerful, as 
insistent, as effective as any other influence that comes 
into the life of a boy or girl. When a study is taught 
as a group of facts to be learned or as a task to be ac- 
complished it may be of very little ultimate moral value, 
but when it is taught "as a mode of understanding it 
has positive ethical import." The well-conducted reci- 
tation is a social event, and in it, as in every social event, 
is the working of a moral agency. "The power to 
handle spelling and numbers and geography," says Rugh 



726 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

(and we might substitute rhetoric and algebra and 
botany), "with moral results cannot be sent to a teacher 
by mail, by essay, or by book. It comes by insight, but 
it is within easy reach of teacher and pupil." The 
ethical value of a school study is the moral force of the 
teacher presenting the subject. Illustrations abound 
showing how various studies may furnish such training 
without its being forced or repellent; and the mechanical 
routine and necessary discipline of the school afford, 
even without recognition, endless opportunity for moral 
training. 

Manual Training. — A review in the Elementary School 
Teacher for February, 1909, of the "Report of an In- 
ternational Inquiry," edited by M. E. Sadler, speaks of 
numerous suggestions made by various writers and 
thinkers in response to inquiries and closes by stating 
that Wm. James is the only one who really ^touches the 
question, and his contribution is short: "I should in- 
crease the amount of manual or motor training relatively 
to the book work and not let the latter predominate till 
the age of fifteen or sixteen." The carrying out of that 
suggestion would, in the opinion of many careful stu- 
dents of school problems, result in a great lessening of 
the distaste for school work and responsibilities among 
adolescents and would have a definite and strong influ- 
ence in the development of moral character. Says John 
Dewey: "Manual training is more than manual; it is 
more than intellectual; in the hands of any good teacher 
it lends itself easily, and almost as a matter of course, 
to development of social habits." Hartmann said, 
as quoted by Superintendent Mott in a paper before 
the National Education Association in 1906: "It ap- 
pears that the efforts of the mind to control the hand in 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 727 

well-directed manual work are repaid a hundredfold 
not only in clearer insight into details of form and com- 
position, of proportions and relationship, of materials 
used and of objects turned out but also in nobler aspira- 
tions, higher hopes, greater firmness oj purpose, calmer 
self -reliance, and a nearer approach to an all-sided free- 
dom." 

A List of Practical Suggestions. — There are scores of 
practical suggestions in connection with the various sides 
of high school life, all of which will repay careful study 
and experiment on the part of loyal, intelligent, and 
open-minded teachers. 

Other Suggestions. — There are interesting and prac- 
tical suggestions by Ella Lyman Cabot, among which 
may be mentioned debates, physical training, instruc- 
tion in business etiquette, and the need for a larger pro- 
portion of men in any high school corps of teachers. 

Social Experimentation. — The experiments made in 
meeting the social and so the moral problem at many 
schools, and most conspicuously at the University High 
School of the University of Chicago, are presented in a 
readable and suggestive article by the head of that 
school, Franklin W. Johnson, in Religious Education for 
February, 191 2. One of the most important suggestions 
in this valuable paper is the statement that the main 
thing we in America have to learn from the English 
schools is the attitude of teachers toward the social life 
of the pupil, with the equally interesting remark, that 
"it is only fair to expect that time and effort spent by 
teachers in these directions shall be taken into consider- 
ation in the amount of work assigned in the more formal 
work of teaching." Another suggestion comes from a 
statement regarding the experiment of directing the stu- 



728 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

dents of that school to a share in the University settle- 
ment work. 

The carefully planned and directed formation of clubs 
with real purposes under the intelligent and sympathetic 
guidance of teachers satisfies the natural hankering at 
this period of life for organization, stimulates worthy 
aims, and avoids the evil effects of the spontaneous, 
mushroom growths which are known as high school 
fraternities and sororities. 

What is sometimes referred to as the Grand Rapids 
plan is treated fully in another chapter of this volume 
and need not be dwelt on here. 

Preparation of Teachers. — The classification of meth- 
ods followed in the training of teachers for responsibili- 
ties in moral training is presented by W. C. Bagley in 
Religious Education for February, 191 1. It shows that 
there is a lack of thorough mastery of the problem on 
the part of those having in charge the exceedingly im- 
portant matter of leading would-be teachers to an in- 
telligent recognition of and preparation for this part of 
their work. 

Miscellaneous Suggestions. — There is a wider range 
of suggestions of very unequal value, presented by 
Principal C. E. Rugh in the same volume, which came 
to him from California schoolmen as the result of a 
request for such suggestions. The study of morals by 
teachers, the planning that pupils shall undertake the 
care of poor children, the development of playgrounds, 
personal supervision of all school activities — these are 
among the most important. This paper has an inter- 
esting account of how the pool-room evil was dealt with 
successfully by a wise high school principal in a town of 
40,000. 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 729 

Vocational Guidance. — A practical suggestion by 
Principal F. M. Giles, of Dekalb, 111., is that the per- 
sonal discussion between teacher and pupil as to the 
choice of a life-work affords an excellent opportunity for 
the conveying of moral lessons. 

The School Must Be Made a Social Institution. — The 
summing up of the best thought of late writers on this 
subject and the outcome of careful experimentation in 
many places leads to the conclusion that until the school 
is viewed and organized and operated as a social insti- 
tution it will fail of securing the best results in its at- 
tempts to co-operate with other agencies for moral 
training. When thus organized and operated the high 
school, without interfering in the least with its function 
in training and developing the minds of pupils and help- 
ing them to mastery of certain fields of knowledge, may 
do much to help in establishing and strengthening the 
influence of what Bagley has entitled the " emotionalized 
prejudices," which are the salvation of all of us under 
sudden or repeated temptation to wrong acts. "It is 
only as the school becomes organized as a social whole 
and as the child recognizes his conduct as a reflection 
of that society that it will be possible to have any moral 
training in our schools." 1 

Student Government. — Various experiments have 
been tried in the way of training adolescents to fitness 
for self-government by placing the responsibility for the 
discipline of the school actually upon their shoulders 
and thus seemingly making a democracy out of a school. 
The proposition is a tempting one to many, but in the 
judgment of the writer it is fraught with danger and, if 
used at all, should be handled with constant reference to 
1 George H. Mead, in Elementary School Teacher for July, 1909. 



730 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the fact that the real responsibility is with the teacher 
who cannot shirk it by devices of student self-govern- 
ment. Furthermore, there seems to be no good reason 
why the school dealing with those who are young, weak, 
and inexperienced should be turned into a republic or a 
town meeting any more than the family should be, a 
part of whose work the school is established to do. The 
Creator made all people young to start with ; made them 
little and helpless and ignorant and inexperienced. Ac- 
cording to Fiske's discovery, that was for the purpose 
of developing, through the extraordinarily long period of 
infancy, the moral sense, under training and the power 
of love. The artificial creation of a governmental ma- 
chine composed of those units and set going without 
control or authority is as absurd as the establishment of 
a self-teaching geometry class. The really wise teacher 
need not be led astray by these false gods, but may de- 
vise methods by which authority is maintained, obedi- 
ence developed, and at the same time a growing sense of 
responsibility brought toward the perfection of manhood. 

Public Opinion in Schools. — These experiments are, 
one and all, practical efforts to take advantage of the 
strong regard of the adolescent for the opinion of his 
fellows. In this connection we should bear in mind 
this line of thought: (a) The adolescent is peculiarly 
sensitive to the good opinion of his fellows — those of 
his own age — to school tradition, school sentiments, and 
ideals, (b) But public opinion in the schools is, or ought 
to be (and can be), in great measure, the teacher's opin- 
ion — the expression of his personality — crystallized in 
the minds of his pupils. 

The Spirit of the School. — This is what I mean when 
I speak of that all-powerful influence " the spirit of the 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 731 

school"; not exactly " school spirit," yet a something 
intangible but mighty which it should be the first care 
of a principal, supported by all of his teachers who are 
gifted to respond to his ideals, to develop and maintain. 
It will be a means to his hand for attaining all that is 
worth while in the work of the school. It will grow and 
develop and become deeply seated. It will prove itself 
an incalculable and far-reaching blessing to the com- 
munity. Soon these boys and girls will be what we 
commonly call the community. 

School Sports. — Right in this connection comes in 
the importance not only of the regulation but the en- 
couragement, study, control, and utilization of school 
sports as a mighty moral agency because of their rela- 
tion to the possibilities in developing the " spirit of the 
school." 

The teaching of self-restraint and control of temper 
in well-handled athletic games is of great value to the 
youth. The Moseley Commission made the criticism 
upon American school sports that " the boy in America 
is not being brought up to punch another boy's head or 
to stand having his own punched in a healthy and proper 
manner." This report must have been made without 
a careful study of American football, which, if wisely 
handled, secures the same effect in training that this 
" head-punching " criticism had in mind. It is interest- 
ing to observe that warm friendships have developed be- 
tween boys of opposing teams from acquaintance gained 
in the fiercest of football contests. Unselfishness is an- 
other great lesson that is learned, and that which is so 
often lacking in men of English race and so essential in 
a self-governing state, the habit of co-operating with 
others. The matter is put in a nutshell from another 



732 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

point of view by Mr. Paton, high master of Manchester 
grammar-school, when he says: "His (the boy's) native 
combativeness, which if neglected would make him a 
hooligan and if repressed makes him a coward, is thus 
utilized to make him a man." 

The above is an excellent illustration of the impor- 
tance of the lesson which so many adults — both parents 
and teachers — have yet to learn, that it is wise and 
necessary to recognize and utilize the traits and quali- 
ties and ambitions and likings of the adolescent for his 
training instead of frowning upon and criticising him 
for being — for a short period of his life — no longer a 
child, and not yet a man or woman, but an adoles- 
cent. 

The University and the Teacher. — David R. Porter 
calls attention to another fact which should be studied 
and utilized more intelligently than it has been thus far, 
and that is that no one commands the attention and 
influences the feeling of a high school boy or girl so 
much as a college man or woman. High school teachers 
ought to be, as they are, recruited from the ranks of the 
colleges and universities for that reason if for no other, 
and in their preparation for their profession they are 
better off if they escape the common frost-bitten effect 
of the highly trained specialist without losing the com- 
mand and power that high training in a special field 
can give. 

The Teacher the Chief Moral Agency. — Every one of 
the agencies referred to is to be made operative and to 
secure its highest effectiveness through the agency of 
the teacher, who is always and everywhere the chief 
equipment of the school whether for intellectual or for 
moral training, whether the boy and girl are to be 



MORAL AGENCIES AND THE STUDENT 733 

" fitted for a vocation," " fitted for citizenship," or 
"fitted to live." 

The School Boards Function. — H. Suzzallo has called 
attention, as many writers have, to the plain distinction 
that must be made between what matters fall properly 
to the charge of the public, voiced through the legis- 
lators and boards of education, and what must be left 
to the teacher. Broad policies and ultimate ends are 
to be determined by the former; but "the administra- 
tion of the schools, the making of the course of study, 
the selection of texts, the prescription of methods of 
teaching, these are matters with which the people or 
their representatives upon boards of education cannot 
deal save with danger of becoming mere meddlers." 

The Change in the Teacher's Status. — The teacher is 
set on a pinnacle in the modern world, at least in the 
sense of being in the public eye and subject to criticism. 
When Epictetus asked whether, if the worst should come, 
a man could not transcribe writings, teach children, or 
be a doorkeeper, he spoke in proper old-world ignorance 
of what the function and status of an American school 
teacher was to become! 

The Duty of the State in Training Teachers.— With 
this higher station and this larger responsibility, it be- 
hooves the state to provide better than it has done thus 
far for the training of its teachers. It should provide 
and require more careful and thorough professional 
training. We ought to insist on more than a bachelor's 
degree as sufficient preparation for a high school teacher. 
The universities must provide "schools of education" 
and dignify them by all the means available. The 
pedagogical training for a high school teacher must 
more and more come to include careful study of the psy- 



734 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

chology of adolescence and the laws and agencies that 
govern moral training. Let us hope also that something 
will come to introduce into such preparation an antidote 
to a certain solemn priggishness which seems sometimes 
to characterize the attitude of persons who have gone 
through courses that are supposed to correspond to my 
suggestion just made. Humor is a moral tonic, and the 
sense of it seems to have been crushed out of some who 
are called teachers. The sad picture of children and 
youth given over into the care of these denatured speci- 
mens of pedagogical product would bring tears to the 
Olympians. Let me iterate and reiterate the need of a 
hero for the guidance of the adolescent in the dim paths 
that lead to morality. And his hero, if the youth's own 
imagination were to create him to order, would be 
neither gloomy nor impervious to the influences of the 
saving grace which we call humor. Remember the 
origin of the word; without it virtue is jejune and very 
hard for the adolescent soul to absorb. 

Meeting the Situation as It Is. — Finally, once more 
let me point to the necessity of recognizing and utilizing 
the qualities that are, rather than grumbling at those 
that are not yet. If the high school freshman is loyal 
to his instinct not to "snitch," do not with elephantine 
tact trample this tender shoot of virtue by "expelling" 
him forsooth because he will not tell. This poor little 
virtue, like Audrey, may be an ill-favored thing, but 
'tis his own, and it may grow, if the gardener be wise, 
to a plant of "loyalty even to loyalty," to use the happy 
phrase of Royce. 

Training by Means of Service. — No other discovery is 
more surprising and more delightful to the anxious ex- 
perimenter with young souls than to discover that these 






MORAL AGESTCIES AND THE STUDENT 735 

hard, sour, little, unripe apples have real seeds in them. 
Patience will discover to you, O teacher, as it has to 
others, that these youngsters may easily and gladly be 
trained to self-sacrifice and service for others, a real 
example of the highest of virtues, more attractive often 
to them than the humdrum virtues, appealing as it does 
to their sense of the heroic. Such training wisely man- 
aged is the finest and most powerful of all the moral 
agencies that affect the high school student. 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 
STUDENT 

Emil Carl Wilm, Ph.D., LL.D. 

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION, WELLS COLLEGE 

The Religious Influences of the High School, Direct 
and Indirect. — The formal influences affecting the re- 
ligious life of the high school student group themselves 
naturally into two classes: (i) those directly exerted by 
the school itself, through the studies, the instructing 
staff, and the general exercises, and (2) influences from 
other institutional agencies, like the church and the 
Sunday-school, which seek to impart ethical and re- 
ligious instruction and training of a specific and supple- 
mentary type. The duties of the high school, therefore, 
in so far as it can be said to have such duties, would seem 
to be: (1) to organize and to make as efficient as possible 
those agencies within the high school itself which may 
contribute to the strengthening and enrichment of the 
religious life of those intrusted to its care, and (2) to 
co-operate with institutions, like the church, the Sunday- 
school, Christian associations, and similar institutions, 
which are aiming at the same ultimate object as the 
school, the object at which all forms of educational en- 
deavor must ultimately aim if they are to justify them- 
selves — the building of character. 

736 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 737 

What Are Religion and Religious Education? — The dis- 
cussion of the relation of the high school to the religious 
development of its students will, I think, be compara- 
tively fruitless without some preliminary understanding 
as to just what we shall mean by religion and by religious 
education. Most of the current discussions of the prob- 
lem of religious education are thoroughly vitiated by the 
entire absence of any clear notions of what the discus- 
sions are about, or of what, precisely, we are trying to 
achieve when we are engaged in so-called religious in- 
struction and training. The majority of writers either 
assume a knowledge of what is meant by religion (a 
matter which has taxed the best powers of expert stu- 
dents of the subject) or else content themselves with 
vague suggestions of religion as a name for morality, or 
as a certain conception of God and of man, and the like. 1 
In the spirit of the mediaeval monk, therefore, in Mr. 
Chesterton's book, and at the risk of being unceremoni- 
ously jostled by those who are anxious to get on, let 
us first undertake some analysis, however rough and 
sketchy, of that fact or form of consciousness which we 
call religion. 

Religion may be viewed, objectively, as a social fact, 
as a name for the church, with all its multiform activi- 
ties, its doctrines, rites, and ceremonies. These, how- 
ever, as is evident on a moment's reflection, do not stand 
by themselves; they are merely the outward forms and 
expressions of certain inward experiences of persons. 
Thus theology is but the embodiment, in systematic out- 
ward form, of the religious ideas and opinions of men 
given to reflection upon religious objects; religious art 

1 For a typical example of this method of dealing with the topic read 
chap. X, Religion, in Sisson's "The Essentials of Character." 



738 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

and religious ceremony are the outward expressions of 
religious emotions; the social and philanthropic activities 
of the church are the organized and outward expressions 
of the religious impulse to service, etc. If we penetrate, 
therefore, beneath the external forms through which re- 
ligion objectifies and expresses itself and seek for the 
fundamental fact of religion itself, without which religion 
as an institutional and social form would not exist at 
all, we shall come upon a characteristic state of mind, a 
spiritual attribute of persons, a fact of a purely psychic 
order. 

When we come to an analysis of this state of mind, we 
find it to be something very complex and pervasive, in- 
volving every phase of activity of man's many-sided psy- 
chical nature. Indeed, the most common error in our 
definitions of the religious consciousness has been that 
we have viewed it too narrowly, as a set of theological 
beliefs, or as an emotional attitude, or as a form of eth- 
ical endeavor, and the like. These views of religion do 
not entirely fail of their purpose; they only err in being 
too simple, too exclusively one-sided to express so com- 
plex and many-featured a phenomenon as religion really 
is. Religion is, indeed, a theology, and it involves emo- 
tional attitudes and a specific form of conduct or life. 
But it is not either of these things exclusively; it is all of 
them at once. It will be well, I think, to take a para- 
graph or two to make this a little clearer. 

Religion as a Theoretical World View. — Religion re- 
presents, in the first place, a certain Weltanschauung, a 
certain view of the universe which purports to be true. 
It is, indeed, the only philosophy of the world and of life 
which enjoys anything like universality. To be sure, the 
view of the world which it represents does not pretend 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 739 

to possess technical adequacy and it does not enjoy the 
complete sanction of the philosophers nor of the schools. 
That, however, detracts little from the force and the 
finality of its appeal to those who are its devotees. 
And it is a weighty recommendation of the methods 
of common sense and an interesting testimony to the 
sure-footedness of our dumbest and most inarticulate 
instincts that the profoundest philosophy often brings 
us back to the fundamental things of religion. For, as 
Bacon said, "it is true that a little philosophy inclineth 
man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bring- 
eth men's minds about to religion." 

As an Ethical Imperative. — But what is true of any 
genuine philosophy of life vitally held, that it is no mere 
theoretic structure but cuts deeply into the conduct of 
life, that it is no set of views merely, held, as it were, in 
the hand, but is enacted and lived, is pre-eminently true 
of religion. While it is, indeed, on one of its sides, a 
theory of life, it is also a force in life. Its solution of the 
world problem is not merely theoretical, it is also practi- 
cal. The riddle of the universe is for it not only an in- 
tellectual problem, an enigma to be resolved by reason, 
it is just as much a problem of conduct, an object of the 
will. Religion is always more than speculative; it is 
remedial as well. It is an ethical imperative, a call to 
duty, a programme of salvation. 1 The universal asso- 
ciation of morality with religion, from the ancient He- 
brews, who ascribed the origin of the moral law directly 
to the will of God, to Kant, who defined religion 
outrightly as morality conceived as divine command, 
and Wordsworth, who apostrophized duty as the " stern 

1 Cf. E. C. Wilm, "The Problem of Religion," especially chaps. II and 
VIII. 



740 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

daughter of the voice of God," bears witness to the close 
connection which exists between religion and the con- 
cepts and practices of morality. Indeed, so conspicuous 
are the ethical features of religion that the description of 
religion given by St. James, however unsatisfactory it 
might prove to the psychological analyst, remains for 
many the most satisfactory and final view of religion's 
true nature: " Pure religion and undefiled before God 
and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the 
widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted 
from the world." 

Its Imaginative Redundancy. — There is still a third 
aspect of religion which is so conspicuous as to be no- 
ticeable even in the most cursory examination of it. 
Mr. G. Lowes Dickinson has suggested this aspect in 
his view of religion as any attitude toward the uni- 
verse which is " greatly and imaginatively conceived." 1 
Whether its imaginative character proves to be a truly 
differentiating characteristic of religion or not, there can 
be no question that religion has always contained impor- 
tant imaginative and poetic elements. And the reason 
for this is not far to seek. Man's life is set in the midst 
of a universe incomparably grand and unfathomable. 
His every problem ends in a mystery. As a consequence 
of his intellectual and physical impotence, his position 
in the universe is one of great helplessness. Beset on 
every side by forces and potencies which he can neither 
comprehend nor control, the central problem of his life 
becomes one of salvation, the problem of escaping from 
the universal burden — a burden of ignorance, of fate, of 
sin. 2 Small wonder, then, that man should construct 

1 " Religion, A Criticism and a Forecast," chap. III. 

2 Cf. Royce, "Sources of Religious Insight." 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 741 

in his imagination a world more friendly to his interests 
and ideals than this mundane sphere in which his lot 
is cast. Religion has been surpassingly exuberant in the 
images and symbols with which man has invested and 
through which he has expressed his deepest ethical 
needs and aspirations. It is the imaginative wealth of 
religion, its noble redundancy, the very thing which 
makes it a stumbling-block to sober science, which ac- 
counts for its perennial appeal to the best minds. And 
nothing, on the other hand, so much reveals a lack of 
comprehension of the true nature of religion, nothing has 
so completely vitiated religious culture, as the blunder 
of mistaking the images and symbols of religion, objects 
of religious faith and fancy, for objects whose existence 
can be proved by logical demonstrations which satisfy 
the intellect. The objects of religious adoration are, 
partly at least, objects of faith, not of proof; creations of 
the will and of the imagination, not objects of the logical 
understanding. 1 

The Problem of Religion in Public Education. — It is 
the social heritage of the religious ideas, mandates, and 
fancies characteristic of any given civilization which con- 
stitutes the religious environment, to use President But- 
ler's term, 2 into which the child passes when he enters 
life and becomes a member of human society. Has 
the school a duty in introducing the child or the youth to 
this part of his world, to this portion of his social heritage ? 
This question has, singularly enough, often been an- 
swered in the negative, and for reasons which I shall 
wish briefly to examine, and, if possible, to refute. 

1 For some particularly fine remarks on the dangers of confusing fact 
and fancy in religion, see Paulsen, "System der Ethik," vol. I, pp. 437- 
413; Engl, tr., book II, chap. VIII, 4. 

2 "The Meaning of Education," I. 



742 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

Difficulties Due to Outworn Conceptions of the Object 
and Methods of Religious Education. — The difficulty of 
the problem of religion in public education, particularly 
in the United States, where religious life and institutions 
are endlessly differentiated, has often been dwelt upon. 
The difficulty, I believe, is largely gratuitous and avoid- 
able. It is a difficulty created, on the one side, by a 
somewhat stiff and one-sided conception of religion it- 
self and, on the other, by an obsolete view of the proper 
methods of religious instruction and training. With a 
disposition of these initial misconceptions, the so-called 
problem of religion in education will largely solve itself. 

Let us make these points somewhat clearer. By re- 
ligious education was formerly meant, and still is widely 
meant, the inculcation of a set of ready-made theological 
dogmas by methods of didactic instruction. The older- 
fashioned methods of catechetical instruction illustrate 
both the matter and the manner of traditional religious 
instruction in its most typical and wide-spread (and, one 
is tempted to say, virulent) form. Now, from the point of 
view of the State, which recognizes and protects equally 
a number of religious sects with their differing theologies, 
the prohibition by the State of instruction in any given 
system of theology or sectarian doctrine is evidently the 
only logical and possible course. But the legal veto of 
doctrinal instruction, logical and appropriate as it has 
been in the past, has, thanks to the progress of peda- 
gogical ideas and of religious liberalism, become largely 
unnecessary and useless. In other words (and this is in 
a way the central point of my whole contention) even if 
there were no legal difficulties in the way of didactic in- 
struction in theological and sectarian doctrines, no mod- 
ern student of education and of educational technic 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 743 

would think of giving such instruction. The primary 
objection to dogmatic religious instruction, in short, is 
not legal or theological, but pedagogical. I cannot en- 
force my point better than by repeating a passage which 
I have printed in another connection: "The most serious 
blunder of all religious education in the past has been 
that it has sought to convey to the pupil formally and 
didactically certain advanced theological ideas for which 
there was nothing whatever corresponding in his own 
experience. The professions of faith we have often ex- 
acted of children have too often been professions not 
of their own faith but of the faith of some theologian 
long since dead. It is, of course, the same pedagogical 
error that has been committed in all other branches, and 
if we have blundered more seriously in religious educa- 
tion than in other branches it is probably due to the fact 
that we have regarded theological truths as somewhat 
more important than other kinds of truth. Teaching 
everywhere has been too formal, too didactic, too direct; 
everywhere has it furnished the child too exclusively 
with words and too little with experiences; everywhere 
has it sought too much to convey information and made 
too little of the child's own activities in observation and 
inference. Good teaching, especially in the more ele- 
mentary branches, must proceed from the concrete to 
the abstract, from the empirical to the rational, from 
facts to principles. Religion, ever conservative, has no- 
toriously reversed this order. Is it not high time that 
we were applying to the most important of all our con- 
cerns those educational principles which have borne such 
rich fruit in other branches? We must, above all, see 
to it that the child is furnished the concrete data out of 
which he will, with proper adult assistance, construct a 



744 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

view of the world which shall be in some genuine sense 
his own, instead of requiring him to learn by rote ab- 
stract formulas which his experience has not enabled him 
to assimilate. If we do not, we must be prepared to 
expect that religion will remain a mere department of the 
child's life, a mere accretion which will be sloughed off 
just as soon as the child passes out from under the im- 
mediate influence of his religious guardians. If, on the 
other hand, the religious life is based upon the solid rock 
of the child's experiences, as gained in life and through 
his studies, nothing will be able to shake it from its se- 
cure foundations. It will have become an organic part 
of life itself, and it can never be disengaged from the 
other genuine elements of the child's culture so long as 
life itself remains." 1 

Significance of the Secular Curriculum for Religious 
Culture.— If, therefore, the question is asked, What is 
the Lernstoff, what are the proper materials and instru- 
ments of religious culture? the answer is: Everything! 
History, nature study, literature, the fine arts, mathe- 
matics, manual and industrial training, as well as the 
more specifically religious materials, the history of re- 
ligions, religious literature, religious art and mythology, 
etc. — anything, in short, which will help the boy to find 
himself, which will strengthen his ethical and religious 
sentiments and raise the tone and efficiency of his life. 
The religious view of the world, and the attitudes and 
habits of will associated therewith, will thus be a growth, 
not an external addition, an individual possession, not 
an alien trait; it will be a view of the world which is the 
upshot of the normal exercise of life rather than a col- 

1 Wilm, "The Culture of Religion: Elements of Religious Educa- 
tion," pp. 70-73. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 745 

lection of preformed ideas and judgments into which 
he has been indoctrinated by methods long since in dis- 
repute wherever the methods of modern pedagogy are 
known and employed. And this is of no small impor- 
tance for the stability of the religious life upon which the 
effectiveness and happiness of life so much depend. A 
religious view of the world, if it is to be more than a 
temporary and flimsy structure ready to collapse at the 
first rude shock it receives at the hands of science or of 
philosophical reflection, must be in some genuine sense 
the result not of dogmatic teaching or authoritative 
prescription, but of the ideas and experiences gained 
from the observation of nature and of men, from the 
study of literature and of science, and from the intelli- 
gent assimilation of these inevitable materials of our 
spiritual culture. 

Not the least of the advantages accruing from the em- 
ployment of what we may call the inductive or natural 
method of religious education is that, as a result of it, 
religion will not be looked upon as a separate depart- 
ment of life, something more or less occult and unreal, 
and set apart from the rest of man's affairs, but rather 
as a quality of mind and character which penetrates the 
entire personality even as it penetrates and permeates 
the whole social mass and the movements of history. 

The Importance of the Teacher. — It would be only 
fair to expect that I should explain somewhat in detail 
just how a religious view of the world would result from 
the pursuit of the usual academic studies without the 
introduction of explicit religious teachings. I have dealt 
with this subject rather fully and in systematic connec- 
tion in another place, and I do not deem it necessary, 
therefore, to go over the ground again, particularly since 



74G THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

it is a matter which requires too detailed an explanation 
to be given very advantageously in the brief space avail- 
able here. 1 The part which the teacher himself plays 
in the interpretation and application of the knowledge 
acquired cannot, of course, be easily overestimated. All 
depends upon his own attitude toward philosophical and 
life problems, upon his personality, upon the dignity and 
worth of his character, and upon the skill with which he 
is able, without sacrifice to scholarship, to elicit from 
the studies their unique philosophical and spiritual sig- 
nificance. There are those rare characters among teach- 
ers under whose magic touch the most intractable and 
unpromising material is transmuted into gold, and, on 
the other hand, no matter how full of possibilities the 
studies and the opportunities, they will fail to be real- 
ized if the teacher is lacking in moral earnestness, in- 
sight, and teaching power. Religion or irreligion will 
be present in the school, some one has said, just as surely 
as teachers are present. It is they who have it in their 
hands to determine to a large extent that indefinable 
but very real and solid thing called the atmosphere and 
tone of the school. And by their tone, as the late Wil- 
liam James finely said, are all things human either lost 
or saved. Nothing promises more for the future of pub- 
lic education in the United States than the increased 
emphasis which is everywhere being placed upon per- 
sonality and character in the selection of teachers as 
well as upon their scholarly and technical equipment. 
It is calculated to give one a fresh sense of the dignity 
and importance of the teaching profession to reflect that 

1 Cf. "The Culture of Religion," especially chap. Ill, "The Relation 
of the Public School to Religious Education." Consult also De Garmo, 
"Principles of Secondary Education," vol. III. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 747 

it is not only the general intelligence but the moral in- 
tegrity and idealism of the nation as well which rests 
very largely in its hands. The inculcation and enforce- 
ment of the ideals of right living and the moral regenera- 
tion of cities and nations depends not primarily upon 
the church and courts of justice, which have to do with 
virtue and corruption whose strength is the strength of 
years, but upon the home and the school, where life is 
new and ideals are plastic and where the influences of 
teaching and example are most vivid and potent. 

The Question of Specific Instruction in Biblical Lit- 
erature and History. — The view put forward here that 
the whole curriculum and conduct of the school must 
contribute in a large sense to the ends of ethical and 
religious culture, and the larger spiritual significance 
which this view attributes to the so-called secular mate- 
rials of the course of study, is not meant to obscure our 
estimate of the value of those more specific means of 
religious culture which the church and the school have 
from time immemorial employed: the more specifically 
religious literatures, the history of religious ideas, the 
poetry and music of devotion, and the rest. The arti- 
ficial exclusion of materials of this kind from the schools 
is not only unpedagogical, revealing a defective sense of 
the importance of historical and psychological continuity 
in educational processes, but it is unjust to the pupil 
himself, who is thus deprived of one of the most inter- 
esting and significant forms of our common social in- 
heritance. 

Nothing, for example, is more strained and short- 
sighted than the exclusion from the schools of instruc- 
tion in the Bible, a practice in which a surprisingly large 
number of people concur and which they appear to ac- 



748 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

cept as an educational and practical necessity. The ob- 
jections to instruction in Biblical literature have largely 
depended upon views of the nature of the Biblical 
writings which are being widely abandoned nowadays, 
so that some relief in respect to this feature of the re- 
ligious education problem may fairly be hoped for and 
expected. For the strained and unnatural views of 
the Bible, and the consequent educational loss entailed 
through its exclusion from general educational use, both 
the religious and the secular factions are alike responsi- 
ble. The church party objected to the use of the Bible 
by secular agencies because the Bible was a " sacred " 
book which could receive adequate interpretation only 
through the appointed agencies of the church, 1 while the 
secular faction held that the whole view of the Bible as 
a source of absolute and irreversible truth was false and 
that the Bible was, therefore, not utilizable at all for 
educational and school purposes. Now that our views of 
the nature of these writings have been pretty thoroughly 
unstiffened and recast, so that we no more think of apply- 
ing the terms " true " and " false " to large portions of the 
Bible than we do to Homer or Dante, we should at length 
be in position to utilize these literary materials for the 
pedagogical and cultural purposes for which they are so 
incomparably adapted. Nothing, indeed, promises more 
for education than the wide-spread interest, at once cor- 
dial and scientific, in the phenomena of the spiritual life, 
the unanimity of opinion regarding the primacy of the 
ethical aim in education, and the unqualified approval 

1 One naturally associates this view with Catholicism; the Protestant 
view, however, is the same in principle, only still narrower, if possible, 
since it often assumes that the true understanding of Biblical teachings 
is monopolized by this or that denomination. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 749 

of all those agencies, irrespective of uninformed or 
pseudoscientific prejudices against them, which possess 
unquestioned pedagogical and cultural value. As an 
example both of the scientific spirit of the psychologist 
and of an unbiassed view of the pedagogical importance 
of the Bible, there is nothing finer than the utterance 
of President G. Stanley Hall in his recent " Educational 
Problems": "The belief in the absolute and literal 
truthfulness and finality of the Bible often makes the 
Book of Books a pedagogic incubus and monstrosity. It 
is, as Moulton says, the worst-printed book in the world, 
with sins unnumbered against the hygiene of the eye; 
but it is also, as Kornfeld urges, the worst-taught of all 
books and, as it might be added, the most grossly mis- 
understood. To eliminate it from education, as the sec- 
ular schools do, is as preposterous pedagogically as it 
would have been in the days of Plato to taboo Homer in 
the education of the Greek youth. It is not only a 
model of English, translated just at that period and in 
just the way that makes it one of the best monuments 
in our language of direct, simple, forcible Saxon style, 
but it is impossible to understand the culture history of 
any country of Europe without it, as it has influenced 
the literature, history, and the life of the Western nations 
as no other book has begun to do. Now that we have a 
new historical revelation of it by the higher criticism, 
this outrageous abuse should cease. The best myth 
is philosophy pedagogically adapted to the young, and 
philosophy is only myth written and revealed in terms of 
the adult intellect." It follows, of course, from the time 
and circumstances under which the Bible was com- 
posed, that there is much in it which is not fitted for the 
individual or the life of to-day, so that expurgation is 



750 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

required. "But this done, the remainder, fitly printed, 
arranged, and understood, should be taught to every 
child as an inalienable birthright. Even its miraculous 
records are mostly, as now interpreted, psychopedagogic 
chefs-d'oeuvre of unique power into all the higher mean- 
ings of which their symbols unfold as the soul ripens to 
maturity. Thus there is no such text-book of both the 
higher anthropology of races and of genetic psychology 
showing how the individual expands and approximates 
the dimensions of the ethnic consciousness." 1 

What is here said in such an admirably impartial 
spirit of the Bible applies to all other religious materials 
whatsoever. As an organic part of the race's culture, 
they are a part of the child's rightful inheritance, and 
it is only a fanciless religiosity or an equally hard and 
one-sided scientificism and secularism which is unable to 
recognize the school's manifest opportunities and duties 
in relation to the normal development of the student's 
spiritual culture. 

Should Biblical Instruction Be Given in Separate 
Periods? — As regards the question of separate instruc- 
tion in the Bible and similar materials in religious his- 
tory and literature, in periods specially set aside for the 
purpose, it seems rather important that such instruction 
should be kept in the closest possible connection with 
the rest of the curriculum and that the suggestion of 
the uniqueness of the Bible and other religious materi- 
als should be as far as possible avoided. The separate 
teaching of the Bible in a special "Department of Bible" 
or "Biblical Literature," such as is found in many col- 
leges, seems, on the whole, an unwise practice and one 
which is likely to rob the instruction in such a depart- 
ed. I, pp. 154-5- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 751 

ment of its full effect through illegitimate prejudices 
and associations which are sure to be aroused. Much, of 
course, depends upon the personality and the skill of the 
instructor in charge. The associations referred to are 
more likely to be avoided, however, and the actual 
pedagogical values of the Biblical writings are more 
likely to be realized, in my opinion, if they are treated 
in as broad a context as possible, in a department, say, 
of Semitic history and literature or, in the high school, 
in the departments of literature and of ancient history; 
in other words, in their concrete connections with other 
historical and literary materials with which they logi- 
cally or historically belong. There is no reason why Job 
or Isaiah should be badly taught any more than Homer 
or Horace. 

The Situation in Germany. — The suggestion to intro- 
duce in a natural way and in their natural connections 
Biblical and similar materials into the courses of study 
of our national school system has been met with the mis- 
giving, expressed in some quarters, that this would mean 
a backward movement in educational policy rather than 
an advance, inasmuch as a number of the leading Euro- 
pean countries have either, like France, excluded religion 
entirely from the public schools or, like England and 
Germany, are striving to rid the public-school system of 
the incubus of religious instruction. The limits of the 
present chapter render impossible an adequate discus- 
sion of the status of the religious education controversy 
in England and Germany or of the precise issues which 
are involved. 1 It is noteworthy, however, that the re- 

1 For an excellent brief account of the status of religious education in 
England, France, and Germany, see De Garmo, "The Present Status of 
Religious Instruction in England, France, Germany, and the United 



752 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

cent objections to religious instruction in Germany, where 
such instruction has long been in vogue as a regular part 
of the public-school curriculum, have not been to re- 
ligious instruction as such, but to dogmatic instruction 
along ecclesiastical and confessional lines, a type which 
no one would, of course, think of advocating for our sys- 
tem of national education. What Germany is seeking 
to do is not to exclude religion from its public schools but 
simply to modernize the methods of instruction in re- 
ligious knowledge and to free religious instruction from 
clerical supervision and control, reforms which are sorely 
needed and which will receive the sympathy and vigor- 
ous support of progressive educators of every class and 
name. " The entire exclusion of religious instruction from 
the schools is impossible; on the other hand, its recon- 
struction is imperative." This ringing statement from 
the late Friedrich Paulsen may be said to represent 
thoroughly the sentiment of the progressive reform ele- 
ments in Germany as distinguished from the extreme 
wings in the present education controversy, the orthodox- 
confessional group, on the one hand, and the agnostic- 
positivist factions on the other. 

The German Programme of Reform. — The situation in 
Germany is so typical and the reform movement so 
sanely and aggressively championed that an examina- 
tion of the fundamental programme of reform cannot but 
prove instructive in the present connection. The nine 
resolutions passed upon and indorsed by the teachers of 

States," in "Principles of Religious Education," edited by H. C. Potter, 
pp. 47-75. For a fuller account, see Sadler, "Moral Instruction and 
Training in Schools. Report of an International Inquiry." For a de- 
tailed statement of the situation in Germany, Show, "The Movement 
for Reform in the Teaching of Religion in the Public Schools of Saxony," 
U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1910, No. 1. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 753 

Saxony, widely known as the Zwickau theses, are so 
typical of the attitude of the teaching profession in Ger- 
many, and so thoroughly represent the position taken 
upon the whole question of religious training in the pres- 
ent chapter, that it will be well worth while to reproduce 
them in full: 1 " (i) Religion is an essential subject of in- 
struction and religious instruction an independent de- 
partment or branch of the public school. (2) Its task 
is to make the mind of Jesus live in the child. (3) The 
course of study and method of instruction must conform 
to the nature of the child mind, and the determination 
of these is exclusively the business of the school. Cleri- 
cal oversight of religious instruction is to be abolished. 
(4) Only such materials of instruction are to be used as 
present religious and ethical life clearly to the child. 
Religious instruction is essentially historical instruction. 
At the centre is to stand the person of Jesus. Besides 
the appropriate Biblical materials, especial attention is 
to be given to life pictures of the promoters of religious 
and ethical culture, with special reference to modern 
times. The experiences of the child must be utilized in 
a helpful way. (5) The public school must exclude sys- 
tematic and dogmatic instruction. In the upper grades 
the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, 
and the Lord's Prayer can be prescribed as an appropri- 
ate basis for a summary of the ethical ideas contained 
in the Christian religion. Luther's catechism cannot be 
the basis and point of departure for the religious instruc- 
tion of the young. As an historical document and as 

1 For the text and discussions of the Zwickau theses, see Briick, "Zur 
Umgestaltung des Religionsunterrichts in der Volksschule"; Rietschel, 
"Zur Reform des Religionsunterrichts"; see also Show, op. cit., and 
bibliography cited there. 



754 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

the Evangelical-Lutheran creed, it is to be esteemed. 
(6) The religious matter to be learned should be re- 
modelled and materially reduced in accordance with 
psychological-pedagogical principles and the amount re- 
quired should be lessened. (7) Religious instruction as 
an independent subject of instruction should not come 
in before the third school year. In order that the inter- 
est of the child may not suffer, the number of hours 
should be lessened in all grades. The customary division 
of religious instruction into Biblical history and catechism 
is to be abolished. Likewise, examinations and censor- 
ships in religion are to be abolished. (8) The entire in- 
struction in religion must stand in harmony with the 
established results of scientific research and with the 
enlightened moral sentiment of our times. (9) Along 
with the reform of religious instruction in the public 
school there is needed a corresponding transformation of 
religious instruction in teachers' training colleges." The 
intent of these theses is so plain that further comment 
upon them is unnecessary. It is my own view that a 
scheme of ethico-religious instruction, broadly in har- 
mony with the German plan, would be of distinct bene- 
fit to American education. A possible exception might 
be made, as already suggested, of the first provision re- 
garding the isolation of this instruction as a separate 
branch of the curriculum. Even this point would, I 
recognize, be open to discussion if it were not for an in- 
stitution, well domesticated in America and in England, 
which is especially devoted to formal religious instruc- 
tion — the Sunday-school. With the subject of the possi- 
ble ways of co-operation between the high school and 
this teaching department of the church we must deal 
briefly in conclusion. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 755 

Lines of Co-operation between the High School and 
the Sunday-School. — It is a very important point, in the 
first place, for teachers and educators generally to view 
the Sunday-school, or the church school of whatever 
name, as an organic part of the educational system as a 
whole, instead of regarding it as one of the appendages 
of the church, which is really negligible as an educa- 
tional agency. The perspective gained through the 
classification of the Sunday-school with the general 
school system cannot but be of benefit both to the high 
school and the church school, as it will make possible 
certain lines of co-operation which would not be so 
likely to be established if the unity of the whole educa- 
tional scheme is lost sight of. 

This mental association between the secular and the 
religious forces in education once established, several 
lines of possible co-operation are easily discernible. 

On the side of the Sunday-school two things are of 
special importance: (i) The materials of the Sunday- 
school curriculum must be treated in as close a corre- 
lation as possible with the studies which the pupil is 
pursuing outside of the Sunday-school. The close con- 
nection which exists between the more purely secu- 
lar studies and religious studies in the German public 
schools and in the Catholic parish schools furnishes the 
ideal condition for bringing the entire curriculum under 
a single aim. The loose relation which has existed in 
America between the two sides of education, the secu- 
lar and the religious, has doubtless been one of the 
greatest weaknesses of our system of religious education 
under church auspices. The result is that the pupil 
thinks of his religious lessons as dealing with a world of 
unrealities and shadows which has no connection what- 



756 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

ever with his daily duties or with the world in which he 
lives. This can be easily brought out by asking any 
Sunday-school pupil with what event in secular history 
some event in Hebrew history is contemporaneous. The 
child will likely reveal the fact that it has never realized 
that the Biblical event ever occurred in the world at all! 

Lines of connection between the secular and the re- 
ligious curriculum can be most naturally and effectively 
established in the various branches of nature study, in 
geography, history, literature, and mythology. The pu- 
pil has a large and varied background of experiences and 
truths in these fields which could be utilized to great 
advantage in rendering the whole course of study more 
real and significant. 

(2) If Sunday-schools expect to enlist the interest of 
high school students in their work they must provide for 
instruction and teachers suited to the grade of academic 
advancement and mental maturity which these pupils 
have reached. One of the main reasons why the Sun- 
day-school fails to interest and to hold young people of 
this age is that it does not furnish them with material 
sufficient in amount and difficulty to command their re- 
spect and to keep them healthfully employed. Much 
could be done, in my opinion, to interest growing young 
people in Sunday-school instruction if the curriculum were 
more differentiated in the upper grades, so as to offer a 
greater variety of interests and branches than is now 
offered in the yearly repetition of half-familiar Biblical 
materials; if instruction in Bible, for example, were sup- 
plemented by courses in biography, ecclesiastical his- 
tory, comparative religion, in practical ethics and so- 
ciology, in the music of the church, much of which is of 
an extremely high grade but is practically unknown, to 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 757 

American young people, and other such courses. It 
seems little less than criminal to starve the interest of 
young people in a subject of really profound significance 
and of intrinsic appeal by feeding them upon the dead 
straw of antiquarian pedantry and upon the insufferably 
tedious moralizing so often indulged in when the mate- 
rials for true religious and social culture are at once so 
interesting and so vastly abundant. One of the leading 
difficulties of Sunday-school work, the difficulty of secur- 
ing strong and competent teachers, would in this way 
incidentally be solved. There would be little difficulty, 
I imagine, in enlisting the interest of persons of academic 
training and personal culture if they believed that the 
instruction which they were called upon to give could be 
made really modern and significant. 

The aid which the high school, on its part, can render 
the Sunday-school, though simple, is very considerable. 
I wish to mention here only three ways which seem to 
me unquestionably important. 

(i) The high school can render a substantial service 
to religious education through the participation of its 
officers and teachers in the actual work of Sunday-school 
supervision and instruction. There would be two main 
advantages in this. In the first place, the teachers 
would bring with them a natural aptitude for teaching, 
classroom experience, and likely some professional train- 
ing. Second, the plan would go far toward solving the 
problem of correlation between the work of the public 
school and the Sunday-school, on the importance of 
which I have already insisted, since the teacher would 
be presumed to have an acquaintance with the pupil's 
other school studies and acquirements which the special 
teacher would naturally not possess. 



758 THE MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 

(2) Whether they take part in the actual work of 
Sunday-school instruction or not, high school teachers 
can do much for religious education by encouraging in 
their pupils regular attendance upon Sunday-school in- 
struction, an indispensable condition, as every teacher 
knows, of effective work along any line of school work. 
This is the more important because attendance upon 
religious instruction offered by churches cannot, in this 
country at least, be made compulsory, as attendance 
upon the secular school can, so that regularity of at- 
tendance is something which depends almost entirely 
upon the conscientious discharge of their duty in this 
respect on the part of parents and teachers. 

(3) The pressing problems of attendance and disci- 
pline of the Sunday-school can both be partly solved 
through the high school by according recognition for 
work done in the Sunday-school through a specified 
amount of credit for proficiency in religious and Biblical 
subjects. An important initial step in this direction 
has recently been taken by the State board of education 
of North Dakota, which in 191 2 published and author- 
ized a syllabus outlining a course of Biblical study for 
the completion of which a half-credit out of the fifteen 
required for graduation is granted. While the teaching 
of the Bible courses is left to the Sunday-school or to 
private instruction, standardization is secured through 
examinations which are given by the board of education 
as a regular State examination. Although the move- 
ment has just been started, many classes have been 
formed, and much interest is manifested. It is unneces- 
sary to say that the official recognition thus accorded to 
Sunday-school instruction is bound to dignify and stiffen 
the work of the Sunday-school as nothing else could. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE STUDENT 759 

In these various ways, then, the three problems which 
are often mentioned as the three main problems of 
Sunday-school instruction — the securing of adequately 
prepared teachers, of regular attendance, and of proper 
standardization and discipline — will, through the gen- 
erous co-operation of the high school, get well under 
way toward solution. Incidentally, the unity of the 
educational organism, the indispensable condition of 
the spiritual integrity of the pupil, will be increasingly 
achieved. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CHAPTERS I AND II 

THE SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL AND THE 
HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE 

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761 



762 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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CHAPTER III 

THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE AMERICAN "FREE" HIGH SCHOOL 

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"School Funds and Their Apportionment." Teachers Col- 
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Elliott, E. C— "Equality of Opportunity for All." Proc. N. E. 
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Fitzpatrick, E. A.— "The Rural School Problem Dissolved." 
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Harris, W. T— "The Growth of the Public High School System 
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Reports of State Superintendents of Public Instruction. 



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Russell, J. E. — "Democracy and Education." Proc. N. E. A., 

1908:155. 
School laws of the various States, as given in the general 

statutes. (The laws of 191 2 and 1913 in some cases only 

were available.) 
Snyder, E. R— "The Legal Status of Rural High Schools." 

Contributions to Education, Teachers College, 1909. 
UpdegrarT, H. — "A Study of Expenses of City School Systems." 

United States Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 5, 191 2. 
Wright, R. H., and Monahan, A. C. — " Training Courses for 

Teachers," United States Bureau of Education, Bulletin 

No. 2, 1913. 

CHAPTER IV 

THE AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE 

Ayres, L. P. — "Laggards in Our Schools." $1.50, Charities 
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Boston. — Annual Report School Committee, 191 2. 

Brown, J. F. — "The Training of Teachers of Secondary Schools 
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Bryan, J. E. — "A Method for Determining the Extent and 
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Psychol. Clinic, vol. I, p. 41. 

Census. — Report of the Thirteenth Census of United States, 
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Cubberley, E. P.— "School Funds and Their Apportionment." 
Teachers College, Columbia University, Contributions to 
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Elliott, E. C. — "Some Fiscal Aspects of Public Education in 
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National Education Association Annual Reports, especially 
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Newton. — Annual Reports of School Committee, 1911-12. 

Pritchett, H. — Sixth and Seventh Annual Reports of Carnegie 
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764 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Snedden and Allen. — "School Reports and School Efficiency. " 
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Strayer, G. D. — "City School Expenditures." Teachers Col- 
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"Standards and Tests for Measuring the Efficiency of 

Schools and School Systems." Bulletin No. 13, 1913, 
United States Bureau of Education. 

Strayer and Thorndike. — "Educational Administration." $1.50, 
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Thorndike, E. L. — "Education." $1.25, Macmillan. 

"The Elimination of Pupils from School." Bulletin No. 4, 

1907, United States Bureau of Education. 

"The Teaching Staff of Secondary Schools in the United 

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Updegraff, H. — "A Study of the Expenses of City School Sys- 
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Van Denburg, J. K. — "Causes of the Elimination of Students in 
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Annual Reports of Commissioner of Education for Unit§d 

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CHAPTER V 

THE RELATION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL TO THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

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Balfour, G. — "The Educational Systems of Great Britain and 
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Brown, J. F. — "The American High School." $1.25, Macmillan. 

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 767 



CHAPTER VI 

RELATION OF HIGH SCHOOLS TO HIGHER EDUCATIONAL 
INSTITUTIONS 

The most comprehensive treatment from the standpoint of the 
efficiency of colleges, of high schools, and of the whole educa- 
tional system is given in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and 
seventh annual reports of the Carnegie Foundation for the Ad- 
vancement of Teaching (576 Fifth Avenue, New York City). 
The fourth and fifth annual reports for 1909 and 19 10, respec- 
tively, treat the subject most fully. 

The Proceedings of the National Education Association con- 
tain many important addresses and reports upon this subject. 
In 1895 the departments of secondary and higher education ap- 
pointed the committee of ten on college entrance requirements, 
and the report of this committee is contained in the Proceedings 
for 1899 and also published separately by the association as 
a pamphlet of one hundred and eighty-eight pages. The Pro- 
ceedings for 1911, 1912, and 1913 contain reports of the com- 
mittee of the secondary department on the articulation of high 
school and college. The Proceedings for 191 2 contain also a 
report of the committee of the manual- training department on 
college entrance requirements. 

The High School Teachers' Association of New York City 
issued in 1910 a pamphlet on "The Articulation of High School 
and College," containing a statement by the association and 
nearly one hundred opinions received in reply from college presi- 
dents, superintendents, and high school principals. 

Bulletin No. 6, 1913, "College Entrance Requirements," is- 
sued by the United States Bureau of Education, contains a tabu- 
lation and analysis of the entrance requirements of two hundred 
and four colleges of liberal arts, eighty-five colleges of engineering, 
and thirty-one colleges of agriculture as they were in Septem- 
ber, 191 2. The bureau is now issuing a bulletin on the "Reor- 
ganization of Secondary Education," containing preliminary 
statements by the chairmen of the various committees consti- 
tuting the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary 
Education. Bulletin No. 41, 1913. 

The reports of the New England College Entrance Certificate 



768 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Board and the documents of the College Entrance Examination 
Board contain discussions of the certificate system and syllabi of 
college entrance courses, respectively. 

Aley, R. J. — " Articulation of Higher and Secondary Education 
through Teaching and Teachers." Proc. N. E. A., 1909, 
pp. 198-203. 

■ " Needed Adjustment between Secondary Schools and Col- 
leges." Proc. N. E. A., 1911, pp. 461-466. 

Allen, J. E. — "For Closer Relations between Secondary Schools 
and Colleges." West Virginia Educator, May, 1908. 

Beers, L. W. — "The Dominance of the High School by the Uni- 
versity." South Dakota Educator, April, May, 1910. 

Bishop, D. H. — "Should Not the University and Colleges of 
Mississippi Adjust Their Entrance Requirements to What 
the High Schools Can Properly Do?" Mississippi School 
Journal, June, 1909. 

Bolton, F. E. — "What is Meant by College Domination." School 
Review, Sept., 1909. Editorial. 

Brooks, S. D. — "The Relations of the University to the Secon- 
dary Schools." Proc. N. E. A., 1909, pp. 192-198. • 

Brown, C. A.— "The Extent to Which the High School Should 
Adjust Its Courses to College Requirements." Proc. 
Alabama Educational Association, 1909, pp. 153-158. 

Brown, J. F. — "The American High School." Chapter on the 
"Function of the High School." $1.25, Macmillan, 
pp. 54-71. 

Brown, J. S— "The Autonomy of the High School." Proc. 
N. E. A., 1909, pp. 480-485. 

Brownson, C. L. — "The Relation between Secondary Schools: 
Tendencies and Possibilities." School Review, Oct., 1910. 

Butler, N. M. — "A New Method of Admission to College." 
Educational Review, Sept., 1909. 

Caldwell, 0. W— "The New University of Chicago Plan for 
Admission." Proc. N. E. A., 191 1, pp. 572-575; also 
pp. 471-474- 

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Third, 
fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh annual reports of the 
President, 576 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 769 

Cary, C. P.— "Opportunities of the Modern High School." 
Proc. N. E. A., iqio, pp. 457-462. 

" Proposed Changes in the Crediting of High Schools." 

Proc. N. E. A., 1909, pp. 207-212. 

Chadsey, C. E. — "The Relation of the High School to the Com- 
munity and the College." Proc. N. E. A., 1909, pp. 203- 
207. 

Cooper, R. F. — "The Functions of the High School as Compared 
with Those of the College." Proc. Alabama Education 
Association, 1910, pp. 262-268. 

Coulter, J. M. — "What the University Expects of the Secondary 
School." School Review, Feb., 1909. 

Davis, H. N. — "The New Harvard Plan for Admission." Proc. 
N. E. A., 1911, pp. 567-571. 

Draper, A. S. — "American Education." Chapter on " Common 
Schools and Universities." $2.00, Houghton, pp. 165-183. 

Duniway, C. O. — "Universities and High Schools." Proc. Na- 
tional Association of State Universities, 1909, pp. 188-190. 

Flexner, A.— "The American College." Chapter on "The Col- 
lege and the Secondary School." $.90, Century, pp. 60- 

115. 

Harding, H. P.— "The College and the High School." Proc. 
North Carolina Teachers' Association, 1908. Edwards & 
Broughton Printing Co., Raleigh, N. C, pp. 306-312. 

High School Teachers' Association of New York City. "The 
Articulation of High School and College." A pamphlet 
containing a statement by the association and nearly one 
hundred replies from college presidents, superintendents, 
and principals, 19 10. 

Hill, A. R— "The State University's Duty to the Public High 
School and How It Should Be Performed." Proc. Na- 
tional Association of State Universities, 1909, pp. 136-141. 

Hollister, H. A. — "High School Administration." Chapter on 
the "Relation of the High School to Colleges and Univer- 
sities." $1.50, Heath, pp. 237-252. 

"Some Results from the Accrediting of High Schools by 

State Universities." Education, Nov., 1908. 

Hosmer, S. M. — "Should Alabama Colleges Allow High School 
Courses to Count toward a Degree? " Proc. Alabama Ed- 
ucational Institution, 1909, pp. 151-1 52. 



770 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ingalls, E. I. — " Inspirational Effects of College Possibilities." 
Pamphlet published by University of Vermont, 191 1, on 
"College Requirements and the Secondary Curriculum." 

Johnson, 0. A. — "The Correlation of High School and Univer- 
sity." Western Journal of Education, July, 1908. 

Judd, C. H. — "The Accrediting System." Proc. North Central 
Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, 19 10, pp. 
162-173. 

Kent, C. W.— "The High School and the College." Proc. North 
Carolina Teachers' Assembly. Edwards and Broughton 
Printing Co., Raleigh, N. C, pp. 305-306. 

Kingsley, C. D. — "College Entrance Requirements." Bulletin 
No. 6, 1913, United States Bureau of Education. Con- 
tains a tabulation and analysis of the requirements of two 
hundred and four colleges of liberal arts, eighty-five col- 
leges of engineering, and thirty-one colleges of agriculture. 

Lewis, W. D. — " College Domination of High Schools." Outlook, 
Dec. n, 1909. 

Lough, J. E. — "Preparation for College." Pamphlet published 
by University of Vermont, 191 1, on "College Require- 
ments and the Secondary Curriculum." 

Luckey, G. W. A. — "Needed Adjustment between Secondary 
Schools and Colleges." Proc. N. E. A., 1911, pp. 466-471. 

Mann, C. R. — "The Interpretation of the College Entrance 
Examination Board's New Definition of the Require- 
ments in Physics." Educational Review, Sept., 1909. 

Manny, F. A. — "The Background of the Certificate System." 
Education, 1909. 

McAndrew, W.— "The High School Itself." Proc. N. E. A., 
1910, pp. 450-457- 

McCartney, T. B., Jr.— "The Relation of High School and 
College." Proc. Kentucky Education Association, 1908. 
Frankfort Printing Co., Frankfort, Ky., pp. 29-34. 

Mell, P. H— "The College Attitude toward the High School." 
Southern Educational Review, 1909. 

Monroe, J. P. — "How the Colleges Ruin the High Schools." 
World's Work, May, 1909. 

Moore, E. C. — "Present Tendencies in Secondary Education." 
Pamphlet published by University of Vermont, 191 1, on 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 771 

"College Requirements and the Secondary Curriculum." 
An excellent statement. 

Moulder, J. L. — "The Effect of Our College Entrance Require- 
ments on the Development of the High School." Proc. 
Alabama Educational Association, iqio, pp. 255-256. 

O'Shea, M. V.— "The Dual System Must Go. Advantages of 
an Inspection Board." Wisconsin Journal of Education, 
Jan., iqio. Editorial. 

Owen, W. B— "What the Colleges Can Do. Where the Shoe 
Pinches." School Review, May, iqio. Editorial. 

Parlin, C. C. — "The University and the High School." Ameri- 
can College, Aug., 19 10. 

Patterson, J. K. — "The University and Its Relation to the Pub- 
lic High School." Proc. Kentucky Educational Associa- 
tion, 1909. Frankfort Printing Co., Frankfort, Ky., pp. 
131-138. 

Price, S. E. — "Shall the High School Curriculum Subserve the 
College Curriculum or the Business World?" Interstate 
Schoolman, Feb., 1909. 

Rodeheaver, J. N. — "Should the High School Train for Col- 
lege?" Proc. South Dakota Educational Association, 
1908, pp. 121-130. 

Roosevelt, T. — "The High School and the College." Outlook, 
May 10, 1913. 

Roscoe, E. M.— "The Small High School and the College." 
Pamphlet published by the University of Vermont, 191 1, 
on "College Requirements and the Secondary Curricu- 
lum." 

Schumacher, M. — "The Affiliation and Accrediting of Catholic 
High Schools and Academies to Colleges." Proc. Cath- 
olic Educational Association, 1909. Published by the As- 
sociation, Columbus, Ohio, pp. 132-140. 

Taylor, J. P. — "The Doomed Pupil." Educational Review, 
May, 1912. 

Thomas, J. M— "The Mission of the New England College." 
Address published by Middlebury College, Middle- 
bury, Vt. 

Yocum, A. D. — "The Relation of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania to the Public School System." Teacher, May, 1910. 



772 BIBLIOGRAPHY 



CHAPTER VII 

THE RELATION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL TO THE INDUSTRIAL LIFE 
OF THE COMMUNITY 

Brown, H. A. — "The Readjustment of a Rural High School to 
the Needs of the Community." Bulletin of the United 
States Bureau of Education, No. 20, 191 2. 

Burks, J. D. — " Getting Our Bearings on Industrial Education." 
The Elementary School Teacher, May, 1909. 

Carlton, F. T. — " Education and Industrial Evolution." $1.25, 
Macmillan. 

"The History and Problems of Organized Labor," chap. 

XVII. $2.00, Heath. 

"The Social Demands of Modern Education." The Pro- 
gressive Journal of Education, April, 1909; Sept., 1909. 

Commons, J. R. — "Industrial Education and Dependency." 
La Follette's Magazine, April 12, 1913. 

Cooley, E. G. — "The Need of Vocational Schools in the United 
States." Pamphlet issued by the Commercial Club of 
Chicago. 

Dean, A. D— "The Worker and the State." $1.50, Century. 

Dewey, J. — "The School and Society." $1.00, University of 
Chicago Press. 

Gillette, J. M. — "Vocational Education." $1.00, American 
Book Company. 

Hanus, P. H. — "Beginnings in Industrial Education." $1.00, 
Houghton. 

Kerschensteiner, Georg. — "Education for Citizenship." $1.00, 
Rand McNally. 

"The Fundamental Principles of Continuation Schools." 

The School Review, vol. XIX, pp. 162, 225, 295. 

Leavitt, F. M. — "Examples of Industrial Education." $1.25, 
University of Chicago Press. 

Person, H. S. — "Industrial Education." $1.00, Houghton. 

Report of the Commission on Industrial and Technical Educa- 
tion. Massachusetts, 1906. 

Report of Committee on Industrial Education. American Fed- 
eration of Labor, 19 10. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 773 

Report of Committee on the Place of Industries in Public Edu- 
cation. National Education Association, 1910. 

Report of the Michigan State Commission on Industrial and 
Agricultural Education, 19 10. 

Sadler, M. E. — "Continuation Schools of England and Else- 
where." Manchester University Press. 

Schneider, H. — "Partial Time Schools." The Annals of the 
American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 
XXXIII. 

Thirty-Five Teachers of Washington Irving High School, 
"What We Are Trying to Do." The World's Work, 
May, 1913. 

Thum, W— "The Public Works High School." The Arena, 
vols. XXXVIII, XXXIX. 



CHAPTERS VIII, IX, X, XI 

LITERATURE ON SPECIAL PHASES OF THE HABITS OF STUDY 

Breslich, E. R. — "Teaching High-School Pupils to Study." 
School Review, vol. XX, pp. 505-15, Oct., 191 2. 

Colvin, S. S. — "The Learning Process." $1.25, Macmillan. 

Cramer, F. — "Talks to Students on the Art of Study." $1.00, 
Hoffman Edwards. 

Dresser, H. W. — "Human Efficiency." $1.50, Putnam. 

Earhart, L. B .— "Teaching Children to Study." $.60, Hough- 
ton. 

"Systematic Study in the Elementary Schools." $1.00, 

Teachers College. 

Hinsdale, B. A.— "The Art of Study." $1.00, American Book 
Co. 

Jones, 0. M— "Teaching Children How to Study." $.80, 
Macmillan. 

McMurry, F. M.— "How to Study." $1.25, Houghton. 

Meumann. — "The Psychology of Learning." $1.75, Appleton. 

Minnick, J. H. — " An Experiment in the Supervised Study of 
Mathematics." School Review, vol. XXI, pp. 670-75. 

Moore, G. W. — "Outline of the Science of Study." $1.00, Hinds. 



774 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Reavis. — "Importance of a Study-Program for High School 
Pupils." School Review, vol. XIX, pp. 398-405, June, 
ion. 

Roberts, G. L. — "How to Study." Educator- Journal, vol. X, 
pp. 626-29, Aug., 1910. 

Rowe, S. H. — "Study Habit and How to Form It." Education, 
vol. XXX, pp. 670-83, June, 1910. 

Stockton, J. L. — "An Analysis of Study." Western Journal of 
Education, vol. V, pp. 117-21, March, 1912. 

Strayer, G. D. — "Teaching Children to Study." Atlantic Edu- 
cational Journal, vol. IV, pp. 285-86, 299, April, 1909. 

Swett, H. P. — "Teaching Pupils to Study." Journal Educa- 
tion, vol. LXIX, pp. 631-32, June 10, 1909. 

Tighe, R. J— "Teaching Children How to Study." North Car- 
olina Association City Public School Superintendents and 
Principals, 1910, Raleigh, N. C. 

Welch, W. M.— "How to Study." $1.00, Welch and Co. 

Wells.— "How to Study." $.50, United C. E. Society. 

READING AND BOOKS IN RELATION TO STUDY 

Bagley, W. C. — "Classroom Management," p. 190, $1.25, 

Macmillan. 
Educational Review, vol. XLV, Feb., 191 3, p. 193. 
Hall, G. S. — "Educational Problems," vol. II, pp. 244-246. 

$7.50, Appleton. 
Huey, E. B. — "The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading." 

$1.40, Macmillan. 
Koopman, H. L. — Education, vol. XXXIII, May, 1903, pp. 

563-569- 
McAndrew, Wm. — The World's Work, vol. XXV, Nov., 191 2, 

pp. 72-79. 
Paulsen, Frederick. — The German Universities, pp. 314-317^*. 

$3.00, Scribner. 
Perry, B. — The Atlantic Monthly, vol. XC, p. 144. 
Prevost, M. — Normal Instructor, Nov., 191 2, p. 15. 
Sidis, B — "Philistine and Genius." $.75, Moffat, Yard. 
Sogard, J. — American School Journal, May, 1913, p. 11. 
The English Journal, vol. II, No. 3, March, 19 13, p. 148. 
White, A. D. — "Autobiography," vol. I, p. 262. $7.50, 

Century. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 775 



THE RELATION OF THE TEACHER TO STUDYING 

Barker, J. F. — School Review, vol. XXI, April, 1913, p. 235. 

Berle, A. A.— "The School in the Home." $1.00, Moffat, Yard. 

Colgrove, C. P. — "The Teacher and the School," pp. 239-252, 
314-316. $1.25, Scribner. 

Educational Review, vol. XLV, Feb., 1913, p. 193. 

Hickman, J. E. — Education, vol. XXXI, June, 191 1, p. 663. 

McKensie, D. — Public School Monthly, vol. LXXXII, March, 
1913, p. 243. 

McMurry, C. — Proc. N. E. A., 1906, pp. 102-108. 

Pedagogical Seminary, vol. XII, Sept., 1905, pp. 239-288. 

Reudiger, W. C. — Education, vol. XXIX, March, 1909, p. 437. 

Sutton, Wm., and Horn, P. W. — "Essentials of School Manage- 
ment." 

The Briggs Report. — Harvard Grad. Magazine, June, 1904. 

CONDITIONS OF EFFECTIVE STUDYING 

Angell, J. R. — "Chapters from Modern Psychology," pp. 279- 

280. $1.35, Longmans. 
Caldwell, O. W — " Detroit Central High-School Plan." Popu- 
lar Science Monthly, vol. LXXXII, pp. 243-51. 
Dearborn, G. — "The Sthenic Index in Education." Pedagogical 

Seminary, vol. XIX, p. 164. 
Duke. — The Teachers' Encyclopedia, vol. IV, p. 100. 
Education, vol. XXV, p. 503. 

Gedinhagen. — "Outlines of School Management." 
Hamilton. — "The Recitation," p. 59. 
Hollister, H. A. — "High School Administration," p. 400. $1.50, 

Heath. 
James, W— "The Energies of Men." $.50, Moffat, Yard. 
Keatinge, M. W. — "Suggestion in Education," $1.75, Mac- 

millan. 
Meriam, J. L. — " Recitation and Study." School Review, vol. 

XVIII, pp. 627-33. 
Popular Science Monthly, vol. LXXXI, Aug., 191 2, p. 194. 
Rowe, S. H. — "Habit Formation and the Science of Teaching," 

pp. 164-65. $1.50, Longmans. 
Stedman, W. — "Oxford — Its Social and Intellectual Life," p. 

159- 



776 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Swift, E. J.— "Mind in the Making," p. 184. $1.50, Scribner. 
Taylor, J. S. — "Proper Use of the Study Period." School 
Work, vol. IV, pp. 274-90. 

INHIBITIONS 

Ayres, L. P. — "Laggards in Our Schools." $1.50, Charities 

Publishing Co. 
Bruce, H. A. — McClure's, vol. XLI, May, 1913, p. 109. 
Heck, W. H— " Study of Mental Fatigue." Warwick and York. 
Marks.— "A Girl's Student Days and After." 
Martin, G. W. — Journal of Experimental Pedagogy, vol. I, nos. 

I and II. 
Munsterberg, H. — "Psychology and Industrial Efficiency," p. 

213. $1.50, Houghton. 
Offner. — "Mental Fatigue." Warwick and York. 
Osborne, L. A. — Pedagogical Seminary, vol. XIX, June, 191 2. 
Reed, C. A. — Normal School Instructor, Nov., 191 2, p. 14. 

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING TECHNICALLY TREATED 

Dewey, J.— "How We Think." $1.00, Heath. 

Meumann, E. — " The Psychology of Learning." $1.50, Appleton. 

Meyer, Max. — "The Fundamental Laws of Human Behavior." 

$2.00, Badger. 
Miller, I. E— "The Psychology of Thinking." $1.25, Mac- 

millan. 
Pillsbury, W. B — "The Psychology of Reasoning." $1.50, 

Appleton. 
Ribot, Th— "Evolution of General Ideas." $1.25, Open Court. 
Swift, E. J.— "Mind in the Making." $1.50, Scribner. 

SOCIAL PHASES OF THE HABITS OF STUDY 

Bagley, W. C— "The Educative Process." $1.25, Macmillan. 

"Classroom Management." $1.25, Macmillan. 

Carlton, F. T.— " Education and Industrial Evolution." $1.25, 
Macmillan. 

Chancellor, W. A. — "Motives, Ideals and Values in Educa- 
tion." $1.75, Houghton. 

Charters, W. W. — "Methods of Teaching" (2d Edition). 
$1.10, Peterson. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 777 

Cooley, C. H. — "Human Nature and the Social Order." $1.50, 

Scribner. 
Davenport, E. — "Education for Efficiency." $1.00, Heath. 
Dewey, J. — "Moral Principles in Education." $.35, Houghton. 
Draper, A. S. — "American Education." $2.00, Houghton. 
Dutton, S. T. — "Social Phases of Education in the School and 

the Home." $1.25, Macmillan. 
King, I. — "Social Aspects of Education." $1.60, Macmillan. 
Kirkpatrick, E. A.— "Fundamentals of Child Study." $1.25, 

Macmillan. 
McDougall, W. — "Social Psychology." $1.50, Luce. 
Mead, G. H. — "Psychology of Social Consciousness." Science, 

vol. XXXI, p. 688. 
Munsterberg, H. — "Psychology and the Teacher." $1.50, 

Appleton. 
Ross, E. A. — "Social Psychology." $1.50, Macmillan. 
Scott, C. A. — "Social Education." $1.50, Ginn. 
Vincent, G. E— "The Social Mind and Education." $1.25, 

Macmillan. 
Yocum, A. D. — "Culture Discipline and Democracy." $1.50, 

Sower. 

CHAPTER XII 

HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATIONS — THE HIGH SCHOOL'S 
RIGHT ARM 

A 

GENERAL 

Barnum, Mrs. O. S. — "Women's Work in the Socialization of 
the Schools." Proc. N. E. A., 1908, pp. 1231-36. 
Discussion, pp. 1237-38. 

Baxter, S. — "Widening the Use of the Public Schoolhouse." 
World's Work, 5:3247-48, March, 1903. 

Berry, G. — "Open Schoolhouse." Bookman, 34:517-24, Jan., 
1912. 

Bobbitt, J. F. — "A City School as a Community Art and Musi- 
cal Centre." Elementary School Teacher, 12:119-26, 
Nov., 1911. 



778 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bridgman, L. B., comp. Partial list of References concerning the 
Socialization of the Public Schools. Western Journal of 
Education, 10:222-23, March, 1905. 

Burns, R. L. — "Schools as Community Centres." Pennsyl- 
vania School Journal, 57:490-92, May, 1909. 

Butterfield, K. L. — "Neighborhood Co-operation in School Life." 
"The Hesperia Movement." Review of Reviews, 23:443- 
46, April, 1 90 1. 

Carlton, F. T. — "The School as a Factor in Industrial and So- 
cial Problems." Education, 24:74-80, Oct., 1903. 

Crosby, D. J. — "How May the Rural Schools Be More Closely 
Related to the Life and Needs of the People?" Proc. 
N. E. A., 1909, pp. 969-71. Discussion, pp. 971-74. 

Crosby, D. J., and Crocheron, B. H. — "Community Work in the 
Rural High School." Department of Agriculture. Year- 
book, 1910. Washington, Government Printing Office, 
191 1, pp. 177-88, illustrated. 

Curtis, H. S. — "The Rural School as a Social Centre." Social 
Centre, 1:92-94, Dec, 1912. 

"City School as a Community Centre, The." National 
Society for the Study of Education. Tenth Year-book, 
Part 1. University of Chicago Press, 79 pp., 8vo. 
Contents: Adult education and the New York plan of 
Public Lectures, by H. C. Leipziger and C. A. Perry; 
Public Lectures, the Cleveland plan, by Sarah E. Hyre; 
Vacation Playgrounds, by R. D. Warden; Organized 
Athletics, by C. W. Crampton; Evening Recreation Cen- 
tres, by E. W. Stitt; The Rochester Civic and Social 
Centres, by E. J. Ward; Home and School Associations, 
by Mrs. E. C. Grice; The Community-Used School, by 
C. A. Perry; Bibliography of City and Rural Schools as 
Community Centres. 

Dewey, J. — "The School as a Social Centre." Annual Report, 
N. E. A., 1902, pp. 373-83- 

Dutton, S. T— " The School as a Social Centre." In his " School 
Management," pp. 213-24. $1.00, Scribner. 

Grice, M. van M. — "Home and School United in Widening Cir- 
cles of Inspiration and Service," with prefatory notes by 
Elmer Ellsworth Brown and Martin G. Brumbaugh. 
Philadelphia, C. Sower Co. (1909), 154 pp., illus., i6mo. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 779 

Hanmer, L. F — "The Wider Use of the School Plant." In New 
York State Teachers' Association. Proceedings, 191 1, 
pp. 68-73. 

Leipziger, H. M. — "The Family and the School." Social Edu- 
cation Quarterly, 1:18-26, Jan., 1908. 

Mowry, D. — "Use of School Buildings for Other than School 
Purposes." Education, 29:92-96, Oct., 1908. 

"Wider Use of the School Plant." Introduction by Luther 

Halsey Gulick, M.D., New York, Charities Publication 
Committee, 1910. XIV, 423 pp., illus., 8vo. (Russell 
Sage Foundation Publications.) "References" at the 
end of most of the chapters. 

Nelson, N. O. — '"The Rural School as a Social Centre." In 
Conference for Educational Review, $$ : 141-43, Dec, 191 1. 
Gives the activities which the rural social centre must 
be prepared to carry on in addition to those which the 
social centre performs in cities. 

"Rural School as a Community Centre, The." National So- 
ciety for the Study of Education. Tenth Year-book, 
Part 2. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 191 1, 
75 PP-, 8vo. 

Contents: The Rural School as a General Educational 
Centre: (a) Community work in the Agricultural High 
School, by B. H. Crocheron; (b) The District Schools in a 
County as Educational and Social Centres, by Jessie 
Field. Rural School Extension: (a) Through Boys' and 
Girls' Agricultural Clubs, by F. W. Howe; (b) Relation of 
Rural School to Better Housekeeping, by E. C. Bishop; 
Rural School Libraries, by A. B. Graham; The Rural 
School as a Means of Developing an Appreciation of Art 
(indoor and outdoor), by O. J. Kern; Organized Recrea- 
tion in Rural Schools, by M. T. Scudder. The General 
Problem of the Relation of the Rural School to Com- 
munity Needs — a Summary, by E. M. Davis; Bibliog- 
raphy prepared by the Bureau of Education and editor. 

Scudder, H. E. — "The Schoolhouse as a Centre." Atlantic 
Monthly, 77:103-19, Jan., 1896. 

Smith, H. L.— "The Full Use of the School Plant." Educational 
Journal, 11:353-60, March, 1911. 
Questionnaire and answers. 



780 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Spargo, J. — "Social Service of a City School." Craftsman, 10: 

605-13, Aug., 1906. 
Swift, E. J. — " Community Demands upon the Public School." 

In National Conference of Charities and Correction. 

Proceedings, 19 10, pp. 169-77. 
"The Schoolhouse as the Civic and Social Centre of the 

Community." Interstate Schoolman, 10:21-24, 9-12, 

June, July, 191 2. 
Wirt, W. — "Utilization of School Plant." American School 

Board Journal, 44: 24, March, 191 2. 
Yerkes, H. K. — "Social Centres." Playground, 2:14-18, Dec, 

1908, illustrated. 

"Every principal was granted by the Board of Educa- 
tion the right to use the school building for the work (of 

the Home and School Associations.") 

B 

women's betterment clubs: work 

(Not Including References to Mothers' Clubs and Parent- 
Teacher Associations) 
Barnum, Mrs. O. S. — "Women's Work in the Socialization of 

the Schools." Proc. N. E. A., 1908, pp. 1231-36. 
" Club and the School, The." American Academy of Political 

and Social Science. Annals, 28:207-12, Sept., 1906. 
Grenfell, H. L. — "The Influence of Woman's Organizations on 

Public Education." Proc. N. E. A., 1907, pp. 125-33. 
Moore, E. P.—" Educational Work of Women's Clubs." In 

association of collegiate alumnae. Publications. Series 

3, pp. 27-35, Feb., 1900. 
Mumford, Mrs. B. B. — "Report upon Woman's Educational 

Work in Virginia." Southern Educational Review, 3: 

970-72, June, July, 1906. 

C 

mothers' clubs and parent-teacher associations 

Brown, E. E. — "How Can the Home and School Get into Closer 
Relations?" Philadelphia, Pa., The After School Club 
of America, 8 pp., i2mo. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 781 

"Home and School League of Philadelphia." Report, 1-6, 
1 906-1 1. 

"How to Start a Mothers' Club." Progressive Teacher, 18: 
14-15, Sept., 12. 

Perry, C. A. — "Recreation the Basis of Association Between 
Parents and Teachers." New York City, Department 
of Child Hygiene of the Russell Sage Foundation (191 1), 
13 pp., 8vo. (Russell Sage Foundation. Department of 
Child Hygiene. Pamphlet.) Health, Education, Recrea- 
tion. No. 87. 

D 

RECREATION 

Scudder, M. T. — "Rural Recreation, a Socializing Factor." 

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social 
Science, 40:175-90, March, 1912. 

Stern, E. C. — "The Organization and Administration of Recrea- 
tion and Social Centre Work." American School Board 
Journal, 45:10, 51, Oct., 1912. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE SCHOOL'S CO-OPERATIVE AGENCIES 

Addams, J. — "Democracy and Social Ethics." $1.25, Mac- 

millan. 
Andrews, F. F. — "Parents' Associations and Public Schools." 

Charities and the Commons, 17:335-43, Nov. 24, 1906. 
"Parents' Associations in Common Schools." School Jour- 
nal, 75:490-96, Nov. 30, 1907. 
"A Successful Parents' Association." School Journal, 73: 

366-67, Nov. 3, 1906. 
Arnold, C. B. — "Parent-Teacher Work Among the Foreigners." 

National Congress of Mothers' Magazine, 2:95-98, Jan., 

1908. 
Baldwin, J. M. — "Individual and Society." $1.50, Badger. 
Bergdell, Mrs. G. M. — "Our Home and School League." School 

Progress, 3:5-7, Jan., 1912. 



782 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bright, C. C. — "The Scope of Parents' Associations and Pro- 
gramme." Child-Welfare Magazine, 5:119-20, April, 

IQII. 

Brown, E. E. — "The Work of Women's Organizations in Educa- 
tion." Proc. N. E. A., 1908, pp. 1218-22. 

Brumbaugh, M. G. — "Functions of Parent-Teacher Associa- 
tions." National Congress of Mothers 1 Magazine, 1908, 
pp. 219-24. 

Buller, N. B. — "Work of the Associations," School Review, 
16:77-88, 1908. 

Bulletin, University of Wisconsin, General Series, nos. 292, 301, 
302, 306, 310-14, 317-18, 323, 327, 330. 

Burnham, W. H. — "The Group as a Stimulus to Mental Ac- 
tivity." Science, new series, 1910, vol. XXXI, pp. 761-67. 

Butler, N. — "Parents' Associations." School Review, 16:78-88, 
Feb., 1908. 

California Congress of Mothers. — "History of California Con- 
gress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations." Los 
Angeles, Cal., 1908, 45 pp., front., ports., 8vo. 

Carlton, F. T.— "Home and School." Education, 26:209-16, 
Dec, 1905. 

Child-Welfare Magazine. Published by National Congress of 
Mothers, Philadelphia, Pa., vols. IV-VII, 1909-13. 

Close, A. D. — "Bethany Parents' Club of Brooklyn." Kinder- 
garten Review, 18:431-36, March, 1908. 

Davis, M. M. — "Psychological Interpretations of Society." 
$2.00, Longmans. 

Denison, E. — "The Making of Citizens in our Public Schools." 
American City, Sept., 1911. 

"Helping School Children." $1.40, Harper. 

Dewey, J. — "The School and Society." $1.00, University of 
Chicago Press. 

Dutton, S. T. — "Social Phases of Education." $1.25, Mac- 
millan. 

Ellis, A. C. — "Circular of Information on Organization and 
Conduct of Parents' and Teachers' Clubs." Austin, 
University of Texas, 1899, 19 pp. 

Fitchburg, Mass. — "The Kindergarten Mothers' League." 
Kindergarten Review, 18:444-45, March, 1908. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 783 

Fontaine, E. C. — "Home and School League Organization in 
Worcester County for Improving Relations between Par- 
ents and School System." Atlantic Educational Journal, 
7: 11-13, Sept., iqii. 

Fuller, S. — "On Parents' Associations in Connection with the 
Public Schools." 8, p. 80. 

Goodwin, E. J. — "School and Home." School Review, 16:320-9, 
1908. 

Grice, Mrs. E. C. — "Conference on Parent-Teacher Associa- 
tions." National Congress of Mothers 1 Magazine, 2:3-8, 
Sept., 1907. 

Grice, Mrs. M. V.— "Home and School." $.60, Sower. 

"Home and School Associations; Object of the Work." 

Chicago, 191 1, 4, p. 80. Reprinted from tenth Year- 
book, part I, of the National Society for the Study of 
Education, VII. 

"How Can the Home and School Get into Closer Relations?" 

Philadelphia, Pa. The After-School Club of America 
(1910), 8, p. 120. 

" Parent-Teacher Associations." National Congress of Moth- 
ers' Magazine, 11:74-76, Feb., 1907. 

Hall, G. S. — -"Some Social inspects of Education." Educational 
Review, 23:443; 15:147- 

Hanna, J. C. — "The Oak Park Parents' and Teachers' Associa- 
tion." School Journal, 73:490-92, Dec, 1906. 

Harding, C. F. — "The Parents' /Association of the School of 
Education." School Review, 18:153-58, March, 1910. 

Hefferan, Mrs. H. M. — "Notes from Parents' Associations." 
Elementary School Teacher, 5:372-75, Feb., 1905. 

Hefferan, Mrs. W. S. — "Suggestions for Mothers' and Parents' 
Circles." National Congress of Mothers' Magazine, 4: 
8-10, Sept., 1909. 

Hersey, Mrs. H. J. — "Parents' Obligation to the School." Proc. 
N. E. A., 1909, pp. 1012-6. 

"Home and School League of Philadelphia." Reports 1-6, 1906- 
11. Address, 112 So. 13th Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

"How to Start a Mothers' Club." Progressive Teacher, 18:14- 
15, Sept., 1912. 

Johnston, E. L. — "The Ideal Mothers' Club." Kindergarten 
Review, 21:628-31, June, 191 1. 



784 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

King, I. — " Social Aspects of Education." $1.60, Macmillan. 

■ " Education for Social Efficiency." $1.50, Appleton. 

Ledyard, M. E. — " Parent-Teacher Associations in California." 
In National Congress of Mothers. First International 
Congress in America for the Welfare of the Child, 1908. 
Published by the National Congress of Mothers' Magazine, 
1908, pp. 225-28. 

Ledyard, M. E., and others. — " Parent-Teacher Work from Coast 
to Coast." National Congress of Mothers' Magazine, 3: 
4-10, Sept., 1908. 

Lindsay, S. M. — "New Duties and Opportunities for Public 
Schools." Social Educational Monthly, March, 1907, 
p. 79. 

McDougall, W. — "Introduction to Social Psychology." $1.50, 
Luce. 

Macmillan, J. V. — "Local Association of Teachers and Parent?." 
School Topics, 1:428-34, May, 1906. 

Mead, G. H. — "Social Consciousness and Consciousness of 
Meaning." Psychological Bulletin, VII, no. 12. 

Montgomery, Mrs. F. H. — "Meeting of Parents' Association." 
Elementary School Teacher, 6:55-62, 1905. 

Moore, Mrs. E. A.— "Meeting of the Parents' Association." 
Elementary School Teacher, 6:167-70, 1905; 6:361-64, 
March, 1906. 

Murchie, Mrs. W. A. — "Work of a Parent-Teacher Associa- 
tion." Augusta, Me., 1912, 6, p. 80. 

National Congress of Mothers. Literature published in Na- 
tional Congress of Mothers' quarterly report, 1:166-67, 
March, 1901. How to organize parents' associations or 
mothers' circles in public schools, with suggestions for 
programmes. National Congress of Mothers, 227 So. 6th 
Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations. 
Triennial hand-book, 1908-n. 48, p. 160; 1911-14. 
70, p. 160. 

National Congress of Mothers' Magazine, The. Published by the 
National Congress of Mothers, Philadelphia, Pa., vols. 
I-III, 1900-09. Continued as Child-Welfare Magazine. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 785 

Oldham, B. M'L.— " Influence of the Mothers' Club." Pro- 
gressive Teacher, 18:14-15, Feb., 1912. 

" Mother Club Work." Progressive Teacher, 18:9-11, Oct., 

1912. 

O'Shea, M. V. — "Social Development and Education." $2.00, 
Houghton. 

"Parent-School Club, A." Religious Education, 6: 574-77, Feb., 
191 2. Tells of the steps of organization and the early 
activities of a recently organized club. 

Perry, C. A. — "Recreation the Basis of Association between 
Parents and Teachers." New York City, Department of 
Child Hygiene of the Russell Sage Foundation (191 1), 
13, p. 80. (Russell Sage Foundation. Department of 
Child Hygiene. Pamphlet No. 87, Health, Education, 
Recreation.) 

■ "Wider Use of the School Plant." $1.25, Charities Publish- 
ing Co. 

"Philadelphia League of Home and School Associations." Na- 
tional Congress of Mothers' Magazine, 2:89-92, Jan., 
1908, illustrated. 

"Public School Relief Association and Mothers' Meetings," 
New York, 1906, 15 pp. 

Ross, E. A. — "Social Psychology." $1.50, Macmillan. 

"School Clubs." Chautauquan, 43:282-83, May, 1906. 

"School Officers and Parents' Association." What some promi- 
nent educators say of the mothers' club and the parent- 
teacher movement. National Congress of Mothers' Mag- 
azine, 2:93-95, Jan., 1908. 

Smith, L. R. — "Mother's Day." Primary School, 14:205-206, 
Feb., 1905. 

Stowe, A. M. — "The School Club." Elementary School Teacher, 
9:364-68, March, 1909. 

Swift, E. J.— "Youth and the Race." $1.50, Scribner. 

Vincent, G. E. — "The Social Mind and Education." 1897. 
$1.25, Macmillan. 

Von Krog, O. S. — "Purpose of Parents' and Teachers' Associa- 
tion." Midland Schools, 25:196-99, March, 191 1. 

"What One Mothers' Club Has Done in the Past Year." Na- 
tional Congress of Mothers' Magazine, 4:17, Sept., 1909. 



786 BIBLIOGRAPHY 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE INTERNAL GOVERNMENT AS AN EXPRESSION OF THE SOCIAL 
CHARACTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Brinton, D. G. — "The Basis of Social Relations," chaps. II (part 
I), III (part II). $1.50, Putnam. 

Eliot, C. W. — "Education for Efficiency." Riverside Educa- 
tional monographs. $.35, Houghton. 

Giddings, F. H. — '"Elements of Sociology." $1.10, Macmillan. 

Hollister, H. A. — "High School Administration," chaps. VII, 
IX, X, XV, XVII. $1.50, Heath. 

Johnston, C. H., Editor. — "High School Education," chap. V, 
by E. C. Elliott. $1.50, Scribner. 

King, I. — "Social Aspects of Education." $1.60, Macmillan. 

"Education for Social Efficiency," chap. V. $1.50, Ap- 

pleton. 

Klapper, P. — "Principles of Educational Practice," chaps. VII, 
VIII, IX, XXV. $1.75, Appleton. 

O'Shea, M. V. — "Social Development and Education." $2.00, 
Houghton. 

Puffer, J. A.— "The Boy and His Gang." $1.00, Houghton. 

Ross, E. A. — "Social Control." $1.25, Macmillan. 

"Social Psychology." $1.50, Macmillan. 

Sachs, J. — "The American Secondary School." $1.10, Macmil- 
lan. 

Thomas, W. I. — "Source Book for Social Origins." $2.75, 
The University of Chicago Press. 

Weeks, R. M— "The People's School." Riverside Educational 
Monographs. $.60, Houghton. 

Weyl, W. E.— "The New Democracy," chaps. XI, XIV, XVI, 
XIX, XX. $2.00, Macmillan. 

References to Periodical Literature: 
Butler, N. M. — "Vocational Preparation as a Social Problem." 

Educational Review, 45:289. 
Findlay, J. J.— "The Corporate Life in the High School, II." 

School Review, 16 : 601 . 
Gibbs, L. R. — "Making a High School a Centre of Social Life." 

School Review, 1 7 : 634. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 787 

Johnson, F. W. — "The Social Organization of the High School." 

School Review, 17:665. 
King, I. — "The Problem and Content of a Course in the Social 

Aspects of Education." Journal of Educational Psy- 
chology, II: I. 23^. 
Lange, A. F. — "Preparation of High School Teachers." Proc. 

N. E. A., 1907, p. 718. 
Mead, G. H. — "The Psychology of Social Consciousness." 

Science, 31 :688. 
Pressland, A. J. — "The English Public School as a Training 

Ground of Citizenship." Educational Review, 40:499. 
Snedden, D. S. — "History Study as an Instrument in the Social 

Education of Children." Journal of Pedagogy, 19:259. 
Suzzallo, H. — "Education as a Social Study." School Review, 

16:330. 
Tucker, W. J.— "How Shall Pupils Be Taught to Estimate 

Themselves?" School Review, 13:597. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE IMPROVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS IN SERVICE AS 
AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION OF 
HIGH SCHOOLS 

Baldwin, W. A. — "The High School: Its Weaknesses and Sug- 
gested Modifications." Report made to the New En- 
gland Association of School Superintendents. Boston, 
New England Publishing Co., 1910, 12 pp. i2mo. 
Reprinted from Journal of Education. Boston. Summarizes 
criticism of high schools under two general heads: 1. The work 
is too much dominated by colleges. 2. The teaching is not peda- 
gogical. Makes recommendations under four general heads: 
1. Standardization. 2. Modification of curriculum. 3. Profes- 
sional Training of Teachers. 4. Method. 
Balliet, T. M— "High School of the Future." Educational 

Foundations, 18:209-16, Nov., 1906. 
Bell, S. — "A Study of the Teacher's Influence." Pedagogical 

Seminary, V, p. 493. 
Book, W. F. — "The High School Teacher from the Pupil's Point 
of View." Pedagogical Seminary, Sept., 1905. 



788 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Boyce, A. C. — " Qualities of Merit in Secondary Teachers." 
Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. Ill, pp. 144-157. 

Burnham, W. H. — '"Some Aspects of the Teaching Profession." 
Forum, June, 1898. 

Brown, J. F. — "The Training of Teachers for Secondary 
Schools." $1.25, Macmillan. 

Cary, C. P.— "The Opportunities of the Modern High School." 
Proc. N. E. A., 1910, pp. 457-62. 

Clement, J. H. — "A Measuring Rod for Teaching Efficiency." 
Kansas School Magazine, March, 19 13. 

King, I. — "The Social Aspects of Education," chap. XVI, 
article by J. T. Ray. $1.60, Macmillan. 

Johnson, F. W. — "The Social Organization of the High School." 
School Review, 17:665-80, Dec, 1909. 

Johnston, C. H., Ed.— "High School Education," XXII, 555, 
p. 12. Bibliography 1471-53 1. $1.50, Scribner. 

Judd, C. H.— "On Scientific Study of High School Problems." 
School Review, 18:84-98, Feb., 19 10. 

"The Meaning of Secondary Education." School Review, 

21:11-25, Jan., 1913. 

Lange, A. F. — •" Self-Directed High School Development." Uni- 
versity of California Chronicle, 12:381-95, Oct., 1910. 

Moore, E. C. — "Present Tendencies in Secondary Education." 
Burlington, Vt. University of Burlington (1911), 20 pp., 
8vo. 

Ruediger, W. C. — Agencies for the Improvement of Teachers. 
United States Bureau of Education. Bulletin, 191 1, no. 3. 

Ruediger, W. C, and Strayer, G. D. — "The Quality of Merit in 
Teachers." Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. I, 
pp. 272-278. 

Sachs, J. — "The American Secondary School and Some of Its 
Problems." $1.10, Macmillan. Appendix contains ref- 
erences. 

"Departmental Organization of Secondary Schools." Edu- 
cation, 27:484-96, April, 1907. 

Syllabus of a general course on the theory and practice of 

teaching in the secondary school. New York City, 
Teachers College, Columbia University, 31 pp., 8vo. 
(Columbia University, Teachers College, Extension Syl- 
labuses, Series A, no. 16.) 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 789 

Thorndike, E, L. — "The Teaching Staff of Secondary Schools 
in the United States, Amount of Education, Length of 
Experience, Salaries." Washington, Government Print- 
ing Office, 1909, 60 pp., 8vo. (United States Bureau of 
Education. Bulletin, 1909, no. 4.) 

Tucker, H. R. — " Government in the High School." Education, 
25:1-11, 81-89, 152-61, Sept.-Nov., 1904. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SOCIAL ACTIVITIES OF HIGH 
SCHOOL STUDENTS 

Brown, J. F. — "The American High School." $1.25, Macmillan. 

Chesley, A. M. — "Social Activities for Men and Boys." Asso- 
ciation Press. 

Crousen, B. — "Pupil Self-Government." $1.00. 

Forbush, W. B. — "The Coming Generation." $1.50, Appleton. 

Gibbs, L. R. — "Making a High School a Centre of Social Life." 
School Review, 1 7 : 634. 

Hollister, H. A.— "High School Administration." $1.50, Heath. 

Johnson, F. W. — "The Social Organization of the High School." 
School Review, 17:665, 1909. 

Keller, P. G. — "Open School Organizations." School Review, 
13:10-14, 1905. 

King, I. — "Social Aspects of Education." $1.60, Macmillan. 

O'Shea, M. V. — "Social Development and Education." $2.00, 
Houghton. 

Owen, W. B— "The Problem of the High School Fraternity." 
School Review, 14:492, 1906. 

"Social Education through the School." School Review, 

15:11-26, 1907. 

Religious Education, June, 19 13. "Better High Schools." 

Religious Education, February, 1913. "Social Education in the 
High School." A symposium contributed by William 
McAndrew, Irving King, Edgar J. Swift, Charles Mc- 
Kenny, Franklin W. Johnson, Colin A. Scott, James H. 
Tufts, Charles E. Rugh, Jesse B. Davis, Frank C. Sharp, 
J. W. Carr, H. B. Wilson, Percival Chubb. 

Sheldon, H. D. — "Student Life and Customs." 



790 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Stamper, A. W. — "The Financial Administration of Student 
Organizations." School Review, 19:25. 

Tyler, J. M— "The Boy and the Girl in High School." Educa- 
tion, 26:462. 

Wetzel, A. — "High School Student Organizations." School 
Review, 13:429. 

CHAPTER XVII 

HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS AND GYMNASTICS AS AN EXPRESSION 
OF THE CORPORATE LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

Anderson, W. G. — "Light Gymnastics." $1.50, Maynard. 

Angel, E. D.— "Play." Little, Brown. 

Bancroft, J. H. — "School Gymnastics." $1.75, Heath. 

Bancroft, J. M. — "Games for the Playground, Home, School, 
and Gymnasium." $1.50, Macmillan. 

Bishop, E. M. — "Americanized Delsarte Culture." Published 
by the author, Chautauqua, N. Y. 

Burchenal, E. — "Folk Dances and Singing Games." Schirmer. 

Crampton, C. W— "Folk Dance Book." $1.50, Barnes. 

Davison, W. J. — "Gymnastic Dancing." $1.00, Y. M. C. A. 
Press. 

Dudley and Kellor. — "Athletic Games in the Education of 
Women." $1.25, Holt. 

Galbraith, A. M. — "Personal Hygiene and Physical Training 
for Women." $2.00, Saunders. 

Graham, J., and Clark, E. H. — "Practical Track and Field Ath- 
letics." $1.00, Duffield. 

Gulick, L. H. — "Physical Education by Muscular Exercise." 
$.75, Blackiston's. 

Hough, J., and Sedgwick, W. T. — "Human Mechanism." $2.40, 
Ginn. 

Johnson, G. E. — "Education by Plays and Games." $.90, Ginn. 

Jones, A. K., System of Roberts, R. J. — " Classified Gymnastic 
Notes." W. F. Adams Co. 

Koch and others. — " Essays Concerning the German System of 
Gymnastics." Freidenker Pub. Co. 

Leland and Leland. — "Playgrounds Technic." $2.50, Bassette. 

McCurdy, J. M.— "Bibliography." Press of Springfield Col- 
lege, Springfield, Mass. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 791 

McKenzie, R. T. — " Exercise in Education and Medicine." 

$5.00, W. B. Saunders. 
Posse, N. B. — " Swedish System of Educational Gymnastics.'' 

$.50, Lee and Shepard. 
Sargent, D. A.— " Health, Strength and Power." $3.00, H. M. 

Caldwell Co. 
Y. M. C. A., International Committee of. — " Nomenclature." 

New York. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

STUDENT DEBATING ACTIVITIES 1 

Churchill, G. B. — "Public Speaking Work in the Secondary 
School." School Review, 11:369-87, April, 1903. 

Foster, W. F. — "Intercollegiate Debates." Nation, 86:420-21. 

Gardner, B. L. — "Debating in the High School." School Re- 
view, 19:534-45; 20:120-24. 

Green, C. — "Debating at School." Nation, 90:637. 

Hartwell, E. C. — "Debating in High School." School Review, 
19:689-93. 

Kittridge, H. W. — "Function of the High School Debating So- 
ciety." School Review, 10:292. 

Lyon, L. S. — "Inter and Intra High School Contests." Educa- 
tion, 33:38-79- 

Stowe, A. M. — "Motivation of Secondary School Debate." 
School Review, 19:546-49. 

"A Danger in College Debates." Literary Digest, pp. 14, 27, 
June 28, 1913. 

CHAPTER XX 

HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES AND THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 

i. General 

Blanchard, C. A. — "Are Fraternities Fraternal?" Century, 
1909, 56:641-42. Brief argument against all secret so- 
cieties. 

1 For a carefully selected and adequate bibliography of references for 
public speaking and voice training, see Johnston's " High School Ed- 
ucation," Chapter XII, pp. 491-493. 



792 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Brown, J. F. — " Secret Societies." In "The American High 
School," pp. 319-327. Condensed statement concerning 
their growth, with arguments pro and con. $1.40, Mac- 
millan. 

Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D. S. — "Administration of High 
Schools," chap. XX in "Administration of Public Schools 
in the United States," p. 378. $1.75, Macmillan. A 
similar statement somewhat more condensed. 

Hard, W. A. — "High School Fraternities. Farce, Tragedy, 
Statesmanship." Everybody's, 1909, 26:73-83. Witty, 
satirical arraignment of this phenomenon in modern 
education. 

Hill, R. C. — "Secret Societies in High Schools." Educational 
Review, Feb., 1912, 43:168. Work done for master's de- 
gree from University of Colorado. Full, thorough treat- 
ment of the whole question historically, with citations of 
opinion and discussions of legal questions involved. Ac- 
companied by a good bibliography which has been freely 
used in the preparation of this. 

Hollister, H. A. — "High School Fraternities." Several para- 
graphs in his "High School Administration." $1.50, 
Heath, pp. 45-46, 181, 183, 196. Discussion of various 
phases and problems of this question. 

Melius, M. — "Are Secret Societies a Danger to Our High 
Schools?" Review of Reviews, 1907, 36:338-341. Thor- 
ough, comprehensive discussion of the problem from all 
points of view. 

Morrison, G. B. — " Secret Fraternities in the High School." 
Report of committee appointed in 1904. Proc. N. E. A., 
1905. Full statement of all that was known up to that 
date, with results of questionnaire investigations and cita- 
tions of opinions. This report led to the adoption of 
resolutions by the National Educational Association 
which appear in the same volume. 

"Social Ethics in High School Life." School Review, 1905, 

13 : 361-70. Careful discussion of the fundamental ethical 
questions underlying the whole matter. 

Smith, S. R. — "Questions Regarding Fraternities in Secondary 
Schools." School Review, 1904, 12:2-3. Preliminary re- 
port of committee appointed by the University of Chicago 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 793 

Annual Conference of Co-operating Schools, and showing 
the elaborate questionnaire sent out by the committee. 

"The Influence of Fraternities in Secondaiy Schools." 

School Review, 1905, 13: 1-10. Final report of same com- 
mittee, with very full presentation of statistics and of 
opinions and arguments, including those of principals, col- 
lege presidents, and members of the fraternities. 

Travis, S. S. — "High School Fraternities." Proc. New York 
Association of Academic Principals, 1908, pp. 83-91. 
Issued as Educational Department Bulletin, No. 458, 
Nov. 1, 1909. Also in Midland Schools, 1909, 23:207-10. 

"High School Fraternities." Education, 1909, 29:517-527. 

Historical and suggestive as to ways of handling the 
problem. 

Wells, A. R. — "Secret Societies in the High School." Journal 
of Education, Jan. 5, 191 1, vol. LXXIII, no. 1. Gen- 
eral discussion, presenting results of correspondence with 
principals and college presidents. 

Whitcomb, C. T. C. — "Report on Organizations among New 
England Pupils." Massachusetts Board of Education, 
Sixty-Ninth Annual Report, 1904-5. Presents results of 
one of the earliest investigations, with both favorable and 
hostile opinions. 
An Address from the Board of Education of Oak Park and 

River Forest Township High School. Printed privately, 1907; 

second edition, 191 1. 

Presents arguments prepared by teachers of the school showing 

effects upon boys and girls separately, both those within and 

those without the organizations, and upon the spirit of the school. 

Elementary School Teacher, 1904-5, 5:576-82. Editorial. Gen- 
eral statement of the problem to date, with arraignment 
of high school curriculum as cause. 

Elementary School Journal, 1904-5, 6:47-54. Editorial. His- 
torical statement and full presentation of the arguments 
for and against. 

Journal of Education, April 16, 1908; July 2^, 1908; July 1, 1909. 
News items and brief discussions. 

Ladies' Home Journal, 1907, 24:12. 

Ohio Teacher, 1908, 28:435-36. 

Pennsylvania School Journal, Feb., 1909, 57:321-23. 



794 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

" Public School Fraternities." United States Bureau of Educa- 
tion. In report of commissioner for 1909, pp. 1 13-14. 
A brief presentation of the general situation to date. 

2. Special 

Hanna, J. C. — "High School Fraternities as Related to College 
Fraternities." Banta's Greek Exchange, 191 2, vol. I, 
no. I. Read before the National Pan-Hellenic Congress 
of Women's College Fraternities, 191 2, and also privately 
printed. Shows essential differences between college fra- 
ternities and high school fraternities, and urges upon the 
former the responsibility of taking a stand against the 
latter. 

Heller, H. H.— "The Social Life of the Adolescent." Educa- 
tion, 1905, 25:579. Incidentally important in a study 
of the basic principles involved. 

Johnson, F. W. — "The Social Organizations of the High School." 
School Review, 1909, 17:665. An interesting account of 
the experiments conducted at the University of Chicago 
High School in an attempt to take care of the social life 
and training of the pupils. 

Keller, P. G. W.— "Open School Organizations." School Re- 
view, 1905, 13 : 10-14. An account of the various organ- 
izations developed and encouraged in the Manitowoc, 
Wis., High School. 

Kohlsaat, P. B. — "Secondary School Fraternities Not a Factor 
in Determining Scholarship." School Review, 1905, 13: 
272. The result of observations in detail for three 
quarters in the Lewis Institute, Chicago. 

Owen, W. B. — "Social Education through the School." School 
Review, 1907, 15:11-23. A discussion of the principles 
involved in the plans for controlling social education in 
the University of Chicago High School, the results of 
which are described in Principal Johnson's paper (men- 
tioned above). 

Wetzel, A. — "Student Organizations in a High School." School 
Review, 1905, 13:429. An explanation of the system of 
handling these matters in the Trenton, N. J., High School, 
where all are kept close to the administration. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 795 

3. Legal 
(a) Publications 

Fleming, J. D. — "The Legal Aspects of High School Fraterni- 
ties." Colorado School Journal, 1908, 23:175-178. A 
summary of the legal questions raised in the courts and 
the arguments and decisions up to date. 

Shannon, R. A., and Pettis, H. S. — Reply Brief for Appellant. 
Appellate Court of Illinois, first district, October term, 
191 2. Smith v. Board of Education of Oak Park and 
River Forest Township High School. Presents argu- 
ments defending thesis that judgment of board of edu- 
cation as to fact of membership is not subject to review 
by the courts. 

Wetterick, S. J. — "Courts and the High School Fraternities." 
The World To-Day, Dec, 1910, 19:1337-1342. A full, 
clear, and fair discussion of main legal points involved 
in all cases that have come before the courts, with their 
decisions, and a forecast of probable decisions on points 
not yet passed upon. Quoted from in chap. XV of this 
volume. 

(b) List of Cases Involving, Directly or Indirectly, the Chief Legal 
Questions Concerning High School Fraternities 

I. Dealing with limitations of pupils' right to attend school: 

1. Vermilion et al. v. The State ex rel 'Englehart, no S. W., 

736. 

2. Sherwood v. The Inhabitants of Charleston, 8 Cush. 

(Mass.), 160. 

3. State ex rel Statland v. White, 82 Ind., 278; 42 Am. Rep., 

496. (The famous "Purdue case.") 

II. Dealing with question of court's interference with authority 

of boards of education: 

4. Wayland v. Hughes et al., 43 Wash., 441; 86 Pac, 642. 

(The "Seattle case" — passed upon by Supreme Court.) 

5. Wilson v. Board of Education, 233 111., 464; 84 N. E., 698. 

(The first "Chicago case" — passed upon by Supreme 
Court.) 



796 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

6. Favorite et al. v. Board of Education, 235 111., 314; 85 N. E., 

402. (The second " Chicago case" — reaffirmation.) 

N. B. — These last three decisions were followed also by 

the Supreme Courts of Colorado and Kansas. 

7. Kinzie v. Toms et al. 29 la., 441; 105 N. W., 686. 

8. Edward Smith v. The Board of Education of Oak Park and 

River Forest Township High School. 
N. B. — Decided for plaintiff in Circuit Court and appealed 
by defendant to Appellate Court. Judgment of lower 
court reversed by Appellate Court and case remanded with 
directions to dismiss the petition. 

Involves the fundamental question of court's right to re- 
view judgment of a board of education. The decision of 
the higher court contains this language: "The power of 
the board to exercise its honest and reasonable discretion 
in such cases without the interference of the courts is well 
settled. School Directors v. Trustees, 66 111., 247; Wilson 
v. Board of Education, 233 id., 464; Kelly v. City of 
Chicago, 62 id., 279; Dental Examiners v. Cooper, 123 id., 

227. 

III. Dealing with authority of school boards over actions out- 
side of school hours: 

9. Burdick v. Babcock, 31 Iowa, 562. 

10. Kinzie v. Toms et al. (see No. 7 above). 

11. State ex rel Dresser v. Board of Education of St. Croix 
Falls, 135 Wis., 619; 116 N. W., 332. 

12. Lander v. Seaver, 32 U. T., 114; Am. Dec, 156. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTRE 

Anthony, W. B.— u Teaching Real Life in School." World's 
Work, 25:695-698, April, 1913. 

Bloomfield, M— "The Vocational Guidance of Youth." $.35, 
Houghton. 

Boone, R. G.— "Manual Training as a Socializing Factor." Ed- 
ucation, 22:395. 

Carr, J. F — "A School with a Clear Aim." World's Work, 19: 
12363. Work of the Interlaken School, La Porte, Ind. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 797 

Cubberley, E. — "Changing Conceptions of Education." $.35, 
Houghton. 

Denison, E. — "Helping School Children." $1.40, Harper. 

Dewey, J. — "School and Society." $1.00, University of Chi- 
cago Press. 

"The School as a Social Centre." Elementary School 

Teacher, 3:73. 

Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D. — "Administration of Public 
Education in the United States." $1.75, Macmillan. 

Eberhart, A. 0.— "What I Am Trying to Do." World's Work, 
25:671-675, April, 1913. 

Eliot, C. W— "The Full Utilization of a Public School Plant." 
Proc. N. E. A., 1903, pp. 241-247. 

Ellwood, C. A. — "Sociology and Modern Social Problems." 
Chap. XV, "Education and Social Progress." $1.00, 
American Book Co. 

Foght, H. W.— "The American Rural School." $1.25, Macmil- 
lan. 

Grice, M. V. — "Home and School." $.60, Christopher Sower 
Co. 

Gulick, L. H. — "Popular Recreation and Public Morality." 
Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Sci- 
ence, July, 1909. 

Harms, P. H. — -"Vocational Guidance and Public Education." 
School Review, 19:57. 

Jenks, J. — "Citizenship and the Schools." $1.25, Holt. 

Johnston, C. H., and others. — "High School Education," vol. I. 
$1.50, Scribner. 

Kern, O. J. — "Among Country Schools." $1.25, Ginn. 

Kerschensteiner, G. — "Education for Citizenship." (Trans, 
by A. J. Pressland.) $.75, Rand, McNally. 

King, I. — "Education for Social Efficiency." $1.50, Appleton- 

"Social Aspects of Education." $1.60, Macmillan. 

Lee, J. — "Play as a School of the Citizen." Charities, 18:486- 

_ 401. 
Leipziger, H. M. — "Free Lectures." Critic, 28:329. A his- 
tory of the movement. 
Annual Reports of Public Lectures, from 1889 to date, De- 
partment of Education, City of New York. 



798 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Monroe, P. — "Influence of the Growing Perception of Human 
Inter-relationship on Education." American Journal of 
Sociology, March, 1913, p. 622. 

Mo wry, D. — "Use of Schoolhouses for Other than School Pur- 
poses." Education, 29:92. 

Parsons, F. — "Choosing a Vocation." $1.00, Houghton. 

Perry, C. A. — "School as a Social Centre," in Cyclopedia of Ed- 
ucation. $5.00, Macmillan. 

"Wider Use of the School Plant." $1.25, Survey As- 
sociates, Inc. 

Poole, E. — "Chicago's Public Playgrounds." Outlook, 87:775- 
781, 1907. 

Sadler, M. E., and others. — "Continuation Schools in England 
and Elsewhere." 8s. 6d., University Press, Manchester, 
Eng. 

Scott, C. A. — "Social Education." $1.25, Ginn. 

Stern, R. B. — "Neighborhood Entertainments." $.75, Sturgis 
& Walton. 

Stockbridge, F. P.— "A University that Runs a State." World's 
Work, 25: 699-708, April, 1913. 

Students' Aid Committee of the High School Teachers' Asso- 
ciation of New York City, E. W. Weaver, Chairman. — 
"Choosing a Career" and other vocational bulletins. 

Tenth Year-book of the National Society for the Study of Edu- 
cation. Part I, "The City School as a Community Cen- 
tre"; Part II, "The Rural School as a Community 
Centre." Edited by the Secretary, S. Chester Parker, 
University of Chicago. Price of each part, $.75. 

Ward, E. J.—" Rochester Social Centres." The Playground 
Association, Proceedings, 3:387-395, 1910. 

Ward, E. J., and others. — "The Social Centre." $1.50, Appleton. 

Ward, L. — "Applied Sociology." Two editions, $2.50 and $3.00, 
Ginn. 

Whitney, F. L. — " High School Extension in Agriculture." Amer- 
ican School Board Journal, 46: 15, May, 1913. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 799 



CHAPTER XXII 

CONTINUATION WORK IN THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Bibliography A 

Addams, J. — "Democracy and Social Ethics." $1.25, Mac- 
millan. 

Carlton, F. T. — " Education and Industrial Evolution." $1.25, 
Macmillan. 

Carmen, G. N. — " Co-operation of School and Shop." School 
Review, 18 : 108. 

Cooley, E. G. — "Vocational Education in Europe." 

"The Continuation School." American School Board 

Journal, 45:11. 

Cubberley, E. B. — "Does the Present Trend toward Voca- 
tional Education Threaten Liberal Culture?" School 
Review, 19:454. 

Davenport, E. — "Education for Efficiency." $1.00, Heath. 

Dean, A. D. — "Industrial Education as a State Policy." 

Forbes, G. M. — "Organization and Administration of Indus- 
trial Schools." American School Board Journal, 46:11. 

Gibson, C. B. — "Recent Tendencies toward Industrial Educa- 
tion in Europe and America." 

Hanus, P. H. — "Beginnings in Industrial Education." $1.00, 
Houghton. 

Kerschensteiner, G. — "The School of the Future." School and 
Home Education, 31:278. 

"Fundamental Principles of Continuation Schools." School 

Review 19:162. 

"Organization of the Continuation Schools in Munich." 

School Review, 19. 

"The Technical Day Schools in Germany." School Review, 

19. 

Sadler, M. E. — "Continuation Schools in England and Else- 
where." Longmans. 

Special bulletins and circulars issued by various boards of educa- 
tion. Bibliography of Industrial, Vocational, and Trade 
Education. Bulletin No. 22 (1913) of United States Bureau 
of Education. 



800 BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Bibliography B 

Additional References and Notes on Continuation 

Schools 

I. Bureau of Labor, Twenty-Fifth Annual Report, 1910. 

II. United States Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. i, 1907. 

III. Report on Vocational Training, Committee of City Club, 

Chicago, 191 2. 

IV. United States Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 10, 1909, 

Eaton, J. S. Education for Efficiency in Railroad Ser- 
vice. 

V. Snedden, D. S. — " Problem of Vocational Training." $.35, 

Houghton. 

VI. Dean, A. D.— -"The Worker and the State." $1.20, 

Century. 

VII. Hall, G. S— "Educational Problems," vol. I, chap. VIII. 
$7.50, Appleton. 

VIII. National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Educa- 
tion, Bulletin No. 3, A Symposium on Industrial Educa- 
tion. 

IX. Ibid., Bulletin No. 11, A Descriptive List of Trade and 

Industrial Schools in the United States. 

X. Ibid., Bulletin No. 12, Legislation upon Industrial Educa- 

tion in the United States. 

XI. Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1911. 

XII. Ayres, L. P. — "Laggards in Our Schools." $1.50, Chari- 
ties Pub. Co. 

XIII. Thorndike, E. L. — "The Elimination of Pupils from 
School." Washington, Government Printing Office, 1908. 

XIV. Monroe, P. — Cyclopedia of Education. $5.00 per vol., 
Macmillan. 

Page References by Topics to Bibliography B 

(The repeated Roman numbers refer to the respective sources listed 
above by title.) 

Definition. — I, Ch. 1, p. 15; XI, Vol. 1, pp. 18-19; H, p. 7; 
X, Pt. II, Sec. 1, pp. 18-22. 
Need of Continuation Schools. — I, Ch. V, pp. 185-186; II, 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 801 

pp. 9-33; III, Pt. II, Ch. II, pp. 28-41; VI, Ch. IV, pp. no- 

147; xii, p. 13; xiii, vii, pp. 540-546. 

Types. — Evening Schools. — Historical, II, pp. 82-97; XIV 
(Evening Schools). Statistics, II, pp. 21-25; I, p. 214, XI, VII, 
pp. 873-876. Description of, II, pp. 82-97; IX, pp. 81-111; 

I, Ch. VI, pp. 213-248. 

Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A.— Statistics, I, pp. 366-373; 
IX, 101-103; II, 25-28. Description of, I, Ch. XII, pp. 363- 
373; II, 101-107; IV, pp. 78-79- 

Correspondence Schools. — Historical, XIV. (See Correspon- 
dence Schools.) Statistics, VII, pp. 549-550; III, Ch. X, pp. 
251-256. Description of, I, Ch. XI, pp. 351-360; II, 107-112; 
IX, pp. 124-125; IV, pp. 88-104; HI, Ch. X, pp. 251-256. 

Co-operative Plan. — Description of, I, Ch. V, pp. 183-210; 
IV, pp. 84-88; IX, pp. in-115; II, pp. 1 13-13 1. Discussion, 
VIII; VI, Ch. VII, pp. 211-246; V, pp. 38-42; III, pp. 200-209; 

II, 133-145. 

Legislation X. — I, Ch. XVI, pp. 499-518. 
Bibliographies.— I, Ch. XVII, pp. 521-539; VI, 345~355; H, 
pp. 145-149- 

CHAPTER XXIII 

THE SOCIALIZING FUNCTION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY 

(The bibliography of high school libraries in High School Education is 
complete through 191 1. No references given there are repeated in this 
volume.) 

Boynton, P. H. — "Suggestions for the English Literature Sec- 
tion of a High School Library." School Review, 25:111- 
116, Feb., 1912. 

Chubb, P.— " Duty of the School to Educate for the Right Use 
of Leisure." Religious Education, vol. VII, pp. 699-704, 
Feb., 1913. Presents forcefully the responsibility of de- 
veloping the play side of education. 

Coult, M.— "How Can We Best Direct the Reading of High 
School Pupils." New York Libraries, 3:52-55, Jan., 
191 2. The author suggests various ways in which the 
teacher could stimulate an interest in books and guide 
the high school students in their reading. 

Dana, J. C. — "Public Libraries and Publicity in Municipal 
Affairs." Library Journal, 38:198-201. Gives outline 



802 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

of civic work carried on in Newark, N. J., through the 
co-operation of public schools and the public library. 

Davis, J. B. — "Use of the Library in Vocational Guidance." 
Proc. N. E. A., 191 2, 1 267-1 273. Outlines reading by 
grades for vocational guidance. 

Dracass, C. E. T.— "The Growth of the High School Library 
in Chicago." Educational Bimonthly, 7:153-156, Dec, 
1912. 

Fargo, L. — "Place of the Library in High School Education." 
Education, 33 : 473, April, 1913. Argues that the librarian 
should be recognized as a teacher and should give in- 
struction in the use of books. 

Forbes, G. M. — "Place of the Library in the High School." 
New York Libraries, 3 : 170-174, Nov., 191 2. Argues that 
the school librarian is in charge of one of the most impor- 
tant centres of the s'chool plant and should understand 
the philosophy, methods, and ideals of modern education 
so that he may co-operate intelligently with those who 
are endeavoring to free education from outworn tradition 
and shape it to meet the needs of to-day. An excellent 
article. 

Freeman, M. W. — "Joint Work of the High School and the 
Public Library in Relating Education to Life." Library 
Journal, 38:179-183, April, 1913. Discusses vocational 
guidance, giving a list of books for vocational guidance 
and for debaters' aids. 

Greenman, E. D. — "Development of Secondary School Libra- 
ries." Library Journal, 38 : 183-189, April, 1913. Gives 
history of the growth of high school libraries with statis- 
tics and full bibliography. 

"State Aid for Public School Libraries." Library Journal, 

37:311-316. Outlines aids offered by different State 
Library Commissions: arranged alphabetically by States. 

Hall, M. E.— "The Possibilities of the High School Library." 
American Library Association, Papers and Proceedings, 
191 2, 260-266. An inspiring paper which discusses: 
creating right attitude toward the library; use of study 
period; library as a social centre; vocational guidance. 

Hopkins, F. M. — "Is There Need for a Course in the Choice 
and Use of Books in Our High Schools? " Proc. N. E. A ., 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 803 

191 2, 1 285-1 288. Gives the outline of an experiment in 
the Central High School of Detroit, Mich., of a course 
in library economy for juniors and seniors. 

Jones, T. L. — "What the Public Library Can Do for the High 
School." Public Libraries, 17:274-276, July, 1912. An 
address before the Wisconsin Library Association in which 
the author gives a practical illustration of how the public 
library should assist the high school. 

McAndrew, W T . — "The High School Librarian." Proc. N. E. A., 
1910, 994-998. Shows the place and importance of high 
school librarians in the work of the high school. 

Mendenhall, I. M. — "Training of High School Students in the 
Use of the Library." New York Libraries, 3:138-140, 
July, 1912. 

"Training in the Use of Books." Library Journal, 38: 

189-192, April, 1913. Valuable suggestions for normal 
courses in library work by the chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Normal School Libraries, N. E. A. 

Ryan, J. V. — "Library Conditions in American Cities." Educa- 
tional Bimonthly, 7:157-172, Dec, 1912. A paper read 
before the English section of the Chicago High and Nor- 
mal School Association. This paper is a report of a com- 
mittee appointed to investigate the conditions in high 
school libraries throughout the country. It is a valuable 
and exhaustive compilation of the work which the high 
schools in various sections of the country are doing. 

Shaw, A. B. — "History Reference Library for High Schools." 
History Teacher's Magazine, 3:79-81, April, 1912. 

Tanner, G. W. — "The Library Situation in Chicago High 
Schools." Educational Bimonthly, 7:9-15, Oct., 1912. 

Walter, F. K. — "Teaching Library Use in Normal and High 
Schools." American Library Association, Papers and Pro- 
ceedings, 191 2, 255-260. Need of instruction in use of 
books discussed under: Education a Continual Process; 
Complication of Modern Life; Education not Confined to 
Books; Modern Teaching Demands Comprehensive Grasp 
of Books. 

Wilson, H. B. — "Schools Enabling Students to Discover Them- 
selves Vocationally, with an Outline of a Course in a Life 
Calling." Religious Education, 7:691-699, Feb., 1913. 



804 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

An account of an experiment in vocational guidance and 
reading by the superintendent of city schools in Decatur, 
111. 

Wilson, L. R. — "A Constructive Library Platform for Southern 
Schools." Library Journal, 37:179-185, April, 1913. 
Argues that progressive work will require school library 
inspectors, instruction of pupils in the use of books, nor- 
mal school instruction in library economy, and other mod- 
ern methods. 

Wolfe, L. E.— "The Many-Book versus the Few-Book Course 
of Study." Educational Review, 45:146, Feb., 1913. 
Enlarges on the statement: "If the teacher is to be pre- 
pared for social efficiency he must be brought into vital 
contact, through books and pictures, with the lines of race 
achievement." 

Plans and Miscellaneous. — " Co-operation between the Public 
Schools and the Public Libraries of Greater New York." 
Library Journal, 37 : 383, July, 191 2. A brief statement 
of the plan of co-operation of New York Board of Educa- 
tion and the City Library System, with recommendations. 
New York Libraries, 3, Nov., 191 2. Editorials: "Books 
to Enrich Life," p. 163; "Books to Aid in the World's 
Work," p. 163. 

Reports of Special Committees. — Report of the Committee on 
High School Libraries. Proc. N. E. A., 1912 1273-1281., 
Reviews the situation of and makes suggestions for high 
school libraries under the topics: The Librarian; Building 
up the Library; Library Rooms and their Use; Instruc- 
tion in the Use of Libraries; Co-operation with Public 
Libraries. 

Report of the Committee on Normal School Libraries. Proc. 
N. E. A., 1912, 1258-1262. A syllabus of library in- 
struction for normal schools. 

Report of Committee on High School Libraries, New York 
Library Association. — A Survey of Recent Library Prog- 
ress in High Schools. New York Libraries, 3:182-184, 
Nov., 191 2. A strong plea for the recognition of the ed- 
ucational power of the school library and for trained 
directors and supervisors in charge who shall also or- 
ganize the teaching of library economy. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 805 

Religious Education for Feb., 19 13, is devoted to the subject of 
Social Life in High Schools and contains many valuable 
articles on this subject in general. 

CHAPTER XXIV 

VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Bibliographies of the Public Libraries of Brooklyn, N. Y., Grand 
Rapids, Mich., Pittsburg, Pa., and of the United States 
Bureau of Education. 

Bloomfield, M. — "The School and the Start in Life." United 
States Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 4, 1914. 

"The Vocational Guidance of Youth." $.60, Houghton. 

Boston School Superintendent's Report, 1913. 

Bray, R. A.— "The Town Child." T. Fisher Unwin, London. 

Buller, E. B. — "Saleswomen in Mercantile Stores." Charities 
Publication Committee. 

Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, Department of So- 
cial Investigation. "Finding Employment for Children 
Who Leave the Grade Schools to Go to Work." $.25, 
Russell Sage Foundation. 

Cooley, E. G. — "Vocational Education in Europe." The Com- 
mercial Club of Chicago. 

Davenport, E. — "Education for Efficiency." $1.00, Heath. 

Davis, B. D. — "Inquiry into Vocational Aims of High School 
Pupils." Somerville (Mass.) School Report, 1913. 

Dean, A. D — "The Worker and the State." Si. 20, Century. 

Eliot, C. W— "Education for Efficiency." $.35, Houghton. 

Gillette, J. M. — "Vocational Education." $1.00, American 
Book Co. 

Gordon, Mrs. O. — "Handbook of Employments." The Rose- 
mount Press, Aberdeen, Scotland, 190S. 

Greenwood, A. — "Juvenile Labor Exchanges and After-Care." 
P. S. King & Son, London. 

Hanus, P. H. — "Beginnings in Industrial Education." $1.00, 
Houghton. 

Keeling, F. — "The Labor Exchange in Relation to Boy and 
Girl Labor." P. S. King & Son, London. 

Keppell, F. P. — "The Occupations of College Graduates." Ed- 
ucational Review, Dec, 19 10. 



806 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

King, I. — " Social Aspects of Education." $1.50, Macmillan, 
1912. 

Laselle, M. A., and Wiley, K., with an introduction by Meyer 
Bloomfield. " Vocations for Girls." $.85, Houghton. 

"Mein Kiinf tiger Beruf." A series of booklets published in 
Leipzig by C. Bange. 

National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education. 
Reports. 105 East 2 2d Street, New York. 

Parsons, F. — "Choosing a Vocation." $1.00, Houghton. 

Sadler, M. E. — "Continuation Schools in England and Else- 
where." Especially chap. XV, on Apprenticeship and 
Skilled Employment Committees. University Press, 
Manchester, Eng. 

Snedden, D. — "The Problem of Vocational Education." $.35, 
Houghton. 

Students' Aid Committee of the High School Teachers' Associa- 
tion of New York City. Publications. Benjamin C. 
Gruenberg, Secretary, Commercial High School, Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. 

Talbert, E. L. — "A Study of Chicago's Stockyards Community." 
No. I, Opportunities in School and Industry for Children 
of the Stockyards District. University of Chicago 
Press. 

Teachers College Record, "Educational Survey and Vocational 
Guidance," Jan., 1913; "The Making of a Girls' Trade 
School." Sept., 1909. Columbia University Press. 

Thorndike, E. L — "Individuality." $.35, Houghton. 

Address, Teachers College Alumni, Bulletin, March, 1913. 

"Trades for London Boys"; "Trades for London Girls." Long- 
mans. 

Twenty-Fifth Annual Report of the United States Commis- 
sioner of Labor, 1910. 

Vocation Bureau. — Proceedings of Vocational Guidance Con- 
ventions. Vocations for Boys and Young Men. Voca- 
tions for Boston Girls (first issued by the Girls' Trade Ed- 
ucation League). 6 Beacon Street, Boston. 

Vocational Guidance, National Association of, Proceedings of. 
J. B. Davis, Grand Rapids, Mich. 

Vocational Guidance Survey of Minneapolis. Unity House, 
Minneapolis, 191 2. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 807 

"Was Werde Ich?" — A series of booklets published in Leipzig 
by Albert Otto Paul. 

Weeks, R. M.— "The People's School." $.60, Houghton. 

Winslow, C. H. — "Vocational Guidance, in Industrial Educa- 
tion." Twenty-Fifth Annual Report of the Commis- 
sioner of Labor, 1910. Department of Commerce and 
Labor, Washington. 

Women's Educational and Industrial Union. " Vocations for the 
Trained Woman Other Than Teaching." 264 Boylston 
Street, Boston, 1910. 

Women's Municipal League. — "A Handbook of Opportunities 
for Vocational Training in Boston." $1.25, Women's 
Municipal League, 6 Marlboro Street, Boston, 19 13. 



CHAPTER XXV 

AVOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 

Bagley, W. C. — "Educational Values." Pp. 216-241 treat of 
the recreative and the interpretative values of studies. 
$1.10, Macmillan. 

Butler, N. M. — "Training for Vocation and for Avocation." 
Educational Review, 36:471. 

Chubb, P. — " Education for Play." Religious Education, 7 : 699. 

Davis, M. M.— " The Exploitation of Pleasure." Pp.61. $.10, 
Russell Sage Foundation. 

Garber, J. P. — " Current Educational Activities." Pp. 23-83. 
$1.25, Lippincott, 1912. 

Griggs, J. H. — "The Use of the Margin." Huebsch, 1907. 

Groos, K— "The Play of Man." $1.50, Appleton. 

Gulick, L. H.— "The Efficient Life." $1.20, Doubleday. 

Hamerton, G. — "The Intellectual Life." $1.00, Little, Brown. 

Lubbock, Sir J.— "The Pleasures of Life." $1.25, Macmillan. 

Perry, C. A. — "Recreation the Basis of Association between 
Parents and Teachers." Pp. 13. $.05, Russell Sage 
Foundation. 

Recreative Bibliography. — Contains thirty-seven pages of classi- 
fied bibliography on the various types of recreative activi- 
ties. $.10, Russell Sage Foundation. 



808 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ruediger, W. C. — " Principles of Education." Pp. 133-155 and 
236-241 discuss respectively the subjective values of 
studies and avocational training. $1.25, Houghton. 

Schaeffer, N. C— "Education for Avocation." Proc. N. E. A., 
1908. 

Sharp, F. C .— " Moral Instruction for the High School." Pp. 
41-51. University of Wisconsin, 1913. 

Spencer, H. — "Education." Pp. 70-84. Appleton. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

CO-OPERATION IN THE TEACHING OE ENGLISH 

Avery, E. H. — "The Training of the English Teacher — One 
Experience." English Journal, 2:322. 

Breitenbach, H. P. — "Literature and Composition." The Na- 
tion, 86:464. 

Browne, G. H. — "Successful Combination against the Inert." 
New England Association of Teachers of English. Leaflet 
no. 3, Oct., 1 901. Secretary, F. W. C. Hersey, Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 

Carpenter, G. R. — "English in Secondary Education" in "The 
Teaching of English," by Carpenter, Baker, and Scott, 
pp. 229-234. $1.50, Longmans. 

Charters, W. W— "A Spelling 'Hospital' in the High School." 
School Review, 18:192. 

Chubb, P. — "The Teaching of English in the Elementary and 
the Secondary School." $1.00, Macmillan. See espe- 
cially "Limitations of the School in Dealing with Illiter- 
acy," pp. 8-16; "Composition and Other Studies," pp. 
176-184; and "Requiring Pupils to Live up to What They 
Know," pp. 326-329. 

Colby, J. R.— "English in the School." Educational Bimonthly, 

3 : i. 

Earle, S. C. — "The Organization of Instruction in English Com- 
position." English Journal, 2:477. 

"English and Other Teaching."— Editorial, The Nation, 86:253. 

Fulton, M. G. — "A Deference of the Special Teacher of Compo- 
sition." The Nation, 86:463. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 809 

Gallagher, 0. C. — "Co-operation in English." New England 
Association of Teachers of English. Leaflet no. 67, Jan., 
1909. Secretary, F. W. C. Hersey, Cambridge, Mass. 

Gardiner, J. H. — "English in Relation to Other Studies." The 
Nation, 86: 509. 

"Training in Illiteracy." School Review, 17:623. 

Gray, R. P. — "English and the Foreign Languages." Educa- 
tional Review, 41:306.. 

Groce, B. — "Some Successful Experiments in Co-operation." 
Report of a committee of the New England Association of 
Teachers of English. Leaflet no. 78, Feb., 1910. Sec- 
retary, F. W. C. Hersey, Cambridge, Mass. 

Herr, C. B. — "Co-operation in the Teaching of English Compo- 
sition." English Journal, 2 : 183. 

Hooper, C. L. — "An Experiment in Co-operation." English 
Journal, 1:173. 

Hopkins, E. M. — "Can Good Work in Teaching Composition be 
Done under Present Conditions?" English Journal, 1:1. 

" Cost and Labor of English Teaching." The final report of 

a committee of the Modern Language Association and 
the National Council of Teachers of English. Lawrence, 
Kan., April, 1913. 

Hopkins, F. M. — "Methods of Instruction in the Use of High 
School Libraries." Proc. N. E. A., 1905, p. 85S. 

Koch, T— " The High School Library." Chap. XXVI of " High 
School Education." $1.50, Scribner 

McLaughlin, M— "English in Relation to Other Studies." The 
Nation, 86:509. 

O'Shea, M. V. — "Linguistic Development and Education." 
$1.25, Macmillan. See especially "Efficiency as Special, 
not General," pp. 232-236; "Development of Efficiency 
in Oral Expression through the General Activities of the 
School," pp. 241-246. 

Partridge, G. E.— "The Genetic Philosophy of Education of 
G. Stanley Hall," pp. 23.9-245. $1.50, Sturgis & Walton. 

Sachs, J. — "The American Secondary School," pp. 1 16-120. 
$1.10, Macmillan. 

Smith, J. F. — "Report on English in Secondary Schools in 
England and Scotland." Educational Review, 40:266. 



810 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Stevens, W. LeC. — "Co-operation in English Teaching." The 
Nation, April 2, 1908. 86 : 303. 

"The Teaching of English in Secondary Schools." Circular 753. 
Board of Education, London, 1910. 

Thurber, S. — "An Address to Normal School Teachers of En- 
glish." School Review, 8:129. 

"Five Axioms of Composition Teaching." School Review, 

5:7. 

CHAPTER XXVII 

The Hygiene of the High School 

medical supervision, school sanitation, the hygiene of 
instruction 

In many references all or several of the five divisions of edu- 
cational hygiene are discussed, and the reader of this chapter is 
referred to the lists given for the chapters on Physiology and 
Hygiene and Sex Pedagogy in the high school in High School 
Education and the one on Athletics and Gymnastics in the 
present volume. Some of the more recent and valuable con- 
tributions follow, including a small selected group of books for 
every-day use in schools. 

I. Books 

Allen, W. H.— "Civics and Health." $1.25, Ginn. 

"Woman's Part in Government." $1.50, Dodd, Mead. 

Ayres, L. P. — "Medical Inspection Legislation." Sage Foun- 
dation, New York. 

Barry, W. F.— "The Hygiene of the Schoolroom." $1.50, Silver, 
Burdett. 

Bergey, D. H. — "The Principles of Hygiene." $3.00, Saunders. 

Burgerstein, L. — "Schulhygiene." B. G. Teubner, Leipzig. 

* Burks, F. W., and J. D. — "Health and the School." Appleton. 

Burrage and Bailey. — "School Sanitation and Decoration." 
$1.50, Heath. 

Chisholm, C. — " The Medical Inspection of Girls in Secondary 
Schools." Longmans. 

Coleman — " The People's Health." Macmillan. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 811 

* Cornell, W. S. — "Health and Medical Inspection of School 

Children." $3.00, F. A. Davis Co. 
Crowley, R. H— "The Hygiene of School Life." Muthen & 

Co., London. 
Curtis, S. H. — " Play and Recreation." Ginn & Co. 

* " Cyclopedia of Education," in five volumes. Articles and bib- 

liographies on all phases of educational hygiene. $5.00 

each, Macmillan. 
Davenport, C. B. — "Heredity in Relation to Eugenics." $2.00, 

Holt. 
Denison, Elsa. — "Helping School Children." $1.40, Harpers. 

* Ditman, N. E. — "Home Hygiene and the Prevention of Dis- 

ease." $1.50, Dufheld. 

* Dresslar, F. B. — " School Hygiene." $1.25, Macmillan. 
Ellwood, C. A. — "Sociology and Modern Social Problems." 

$1.00, American Book Co. 

Emerson, C. P. — "Essentials of Medicine." $2.00, Lippincott. 

Fisher, L— "National Vitality." $.15, United States Senate 
Document. 

Fitz, G. W. — "Principles of Physiology and Hygiene." $1.12, 
Holt. 

Foster, W. T. — " The Social Emergency." Houghton. 

Gerhard, W. P.— "Sanitation of Public Buildings." Wiley & 
Sons, London. 

Gesell, A. L., and B. C— "The Normal Child and Primary Ed- 
ucation." $1.50, Ginn. 

Gillette, J. M. — "Constructive Rural Sociology." $2.00, Stur- 
gis & Walton. 

* Gulick and Ayres. — "Medical Inspection of Schools," 1913. 

The Survey Associates Co. 
Gulick and Jewett. — "The Gulick Hygiene Series." Ginn. 
Hall, G. S. — "Adolescence." $7.50, Appleton. 

"Educational Problems." $7.50, Appleton. 

Hall, W. S. — " Sexual Knowledge." International Bible House. 

* Hoag, E. B.— "The Health Index of Children." $.80, Whit- 

aker & Ray-Wiggin Co., San Francisco. 

Hogarth, A. H. — "Medical Inspection of Schools." $6.00, 
Henry Froude, Oxford University Press, London. 

Holmes, A. — "The Conservation of the Child." $1.25, Lippin- 
cott. 



812 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Holt, E. — "Diseases of Childhood and Infancy." Appleton. 
Hough and Sedgwick. — "The Human Mechanism." $2.00, 
Ginn. 

* Hutchinson, W. — "Handbook of Health." $.65, Houghton. 
"Common Diseases." $1.50, Houghton. 

■ "Preventable Diseases." $1.50, Houghton. 

Hutt, C. W. — "Hygiene for Health Visitors, School Nurses, and 
Social Workers." P. S. King & Son, London. 

Kelynack, T. N. — "Medical Examination of Schools and Schol- 
ars." King, London. 

Lippert and Holmes. — "When to Send for the Doctor." Lip- 
pincott. 

McCombs, R. S. — "Diseases of Children for Nurses." $2.00, 
W. B. Saunders Co. 

Mackenzie, W. L— "The Health of the School Child." Me- 
thuen & Co., London. 

Mackenzie and Matthew. — "The Medical Inspection of School 
Children." Hodge & Co., Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Mangold, G. B— "Child Problems." $1.25, Macmillan. 

Marshall, J. S— "Mouth Hygiene." $5.50, Lippincott. 

Moll, A.— "The Sexual Life of the Child." $1.75, Macmillan. 

Newmayer, S. W. — " Medical and Sanitary Inspection of 
Schools." Lea & Febiger. 

Nutting, Read, and Stewart. — "The Nurse in Education." 
$.75, University of Chicago Press. 

Perry, C. A.— "Wider Use of the School Plant." $1.25, Chari- 
ties Publication Committee. 

* Rapeer, L. W. — "School Health Administration." Teachers 

College, Columbia University. 
Ritchie, J. W. — "Primer of Hygiene." (New World Science 

Series.) $.40, The World Book Co. 
School of Civics and Philanthropy. Chicago. "The Child in 

the City." 
Schubert, P. — "Das Schulartzwesen in Deutschland." Leopold 

Voss, Hamburg, Germany. 
Shaw, E. R. — "School Hygiene." $1.00, Macmillan. 
Sill, E. M.— "The Child— Its Care, Diet, and Common Ills." 

$.40, Holt. 
Steven, E. M. — "Medical Supervision in Schools." Bailliere, 

Tindall & Cox, London. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 813 

* Terman, L. M— "The Teacher's Health." $.60, Houghton. 

" The Hygiene of the School Child." Houghton. 

Terman and Hoag. — " Health Work in the Schools." Houghton. 
Tolmon, W. H. — " Hygiene for the Worker." American Book Co. 
Wallace, A. R. — "Social Environment and Moral Progress." 

Cassell & Co. 
Ward, E. J.— "The Social Centre." Appleton. 
Weeks, A. D. — "The Education of Tomorrow." Sturgis & 

Walton Co. 
Wile, I. S— "Sex Education." Duffield. 
Willson, R. N. — "The Education of the Young in Sex Hygiene." 

Published by the author, 1708 Locust Street, Philadelphia. 
Wood, T. D. — "Health and Education." University of Chicago 

Press. 
Woodworth, R. S.— "The Care of the Body." $1.50, Macmillan. 

II. Small Selected List for the Beginning of a Profes- 
sional Library 

Burks. — "Health and the School." Appleton. 

Cornell. — "Health and Medical Inspection of School Children." 

F. A. Davis Co. 
" Cyclopedia of Education." 5 vols., $5.00 each, Macmillan. 
Ditman. — "Home Hygiene and the Prevention of Disease." 

Duffield. 
Dresslar. — "School Hygiene." Macmillan. 
Gulick and Ayres. "Medical Inspection of Schools." (1913 

ed.) Survey Associates. 
Hoag.— "The Health Index of Children." $.80, Whitaker & 

Ray-Wiggin. 
Hutchinson.—" Handbook of Health." $.65, Houghton. 
Rapeer. — "School Health Administration." Teachers College, 

Columbia University. 
Terman.— "The Teacher's Health." $.60, Houghton. 

" The Hygiene of the School Child." Houghton. 

Terman and Hoag. — " School Health Work." Houghton. 

III. Articles 

A very rapidly increasing number of articles on various phases 
of school health in both educational and other magazines 
have appeared since 1906. Many of these will be found 



814 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

in the bibliographies below. The various indexes may be 
used for finding others. Practically all that has been 
said in articles is incorporated in the recent books men- 
tioned. 

IV. Reports — American 

Bulletins of the United States Bureau of Education. 

No. 528. Dresslar and others. — "Report of the Fifteenth In- 
ternational Congress on Hygiene and Demography." 

No. 496. Dresslar, Wood, and North. — "Current Educational 
Topics." 

No. 475. Nutting, M. A. — "Educational Status of Nursing." 

191 2 Annual Report of the Commissioner, vol. I. Dresslar, 
"Typical Health-Teaching Agencies." 

Child Hygiene Division of the Sage Foundation. Ayres, 
"What American Cities Are Doing for the Health of 
School Children and Others." 

Annual Reports of Medical Inspection in Cleveland, O. 

Annual Reports of the Health Officer of Providence, R. I. 

Annual Reports of Medical Inspection in Newark, N. J. 

Annual Reports of Medical Inspection in South Manchester, 
Conn. 

Various Reports in the Journal of the American Medical Associa- 
tion. 

" U. S. Mortality Statistics." 

Various Reports in the Proceedings of the National Education 
Association. 

Reports in the various magazines for nurses and physicians. 

Various city school and board of health reports. 

Bulletins of the Life Extension Institute, N. Y. City. 

Volumes of Proceedings of the National and the International 
Congresses on School Hygiene. Secretary, Doctor Thos. 
Storey, College of the City of New York. 

V. Reports — Foreign 

Annual Reports of Medical Inspection in Dunfermline, Scotland. 
Annual Reports of Medical Inspection in Scotland, by W. L. 

Mackenzie, and published by H. M. Stationery Office, 

23 Forth Street, Edinburgh. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 815 

Annual Reports of the Chief Medical Officer of the English 
Board of Education, covering England, Ireland, and 
Wales. Whitehall, London. 

Wyman & Sons, Fetter Lane, E. C, London. The Scottish re- 
ports may also be purchased at this office for a small sum. 

From these reports the cities that have exceptionally good medi- 
cal inspection work and reports may be learned. 

London County Council. Special reports on Medical Inspection, 
School Feeding, and the like. 

The work of medical inspection in other countries may be learned 
in the various volumes of Proceedings of the Interna- 
tional School Hygiene Congress. Secretary, Doctor Thcs. 
Storey, College of the City of New York. 

VI. Bibliographies 

The United States Bureau of Education and the Library of Con- 
gress at Washington will furnish bibliographies on this 
subject on request. 

Annotated Bibliography of Medical Inspection and Health Su- 
pervision of School Children in the United States for the 
Years 1909-12. United States Bureau of Education. 

Teachers College, Columbia University. A Bibliography on 
Educational Hygiene. By Doctor Thos. D. Wood and 
Mary Reesor, New York City. 

Bibliography of Child Study for the Years 1908-09. By Louis 
N. Wilson. United States Bureau of Education. 

See also the bibliographies at the end of various articles on school 
hygiene in Monroe's " Cyclopedia of Education." Mac- 
millan. 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE HIGH SCHOOL AS THE ART CENTRE OF THE COMMUNITY 

Books. 

Beatty, J. W. — "Illustrated Catalogues of Annual Exhibits, 
1896-1913." Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, Pa. 

Caffin, C. H. — "American Masters of Painting." $1.25, Double- 
day, Page. 

"Art for Life's Sake." Prang. 

■ "How to Study Pictures." $2.00, Century. 



816 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Emery, M. S— "How to Enjoy Pictures." $1.50, Prang. 

Garesche, M. R.— "Art of the Ages." $1.25, Prang. 

Haney, J. — "Art Education in the Public Schools of the 
United States." American Art Annual. 

Harrison, B. — "Landscape Painting." $1.50, Scribner. 

Hartmann, S. — "A History of American Art." $4.00, L. C. 
Page. 

"Japanese Art." $1.50, L. C. Page. 

Isham, S. — "American Painting." $5.00, Macmillan. 

Morris, W. — "Hopes and Fears for Art." $1.50, Longmans. 

Munsell, A. H— "A Color Notation." $1.00, George H. Ellis. 

Munsterberg, H. — "The Principles of Art Education." $1.00, 
Prang. 

Noyes, C. — "The Enjoyment of Art." $1.00, Houghton. 

Reinach, S— "Apollo." $1.50, Scribner. 

Stevenson, R. A. M.— " Velasquez." G. Bell & Sons, Ltd. 

Taft, L.— "The History of American Sculpture." $6.00, Mac- 
millan. 

Van Dyke, J. C. — "History of Painting." $1.25, Longmans. 

— — "Art Education for High Schools." $1.25, Prang. 

Magazines. 
The International Studio. $5.00, John Lane Co., New York. 
The Craftsman. $3.00, Craftsman Pub. Co., 41 West 34th 

Street, New York. 
The School Arts Magazine. $1.50, School Arts Pub. Co., Boston, 

Mass. 

Magazine Articles. 

"An Art Association for the People." E. B. Johnston, The Out- 
look, April 27, 1907. 

"A Notable High School." H. T. Bailey, The School Arts Book, 
April, 191 2. 

"Art in Indiana." E. B. Johnston, The Outlook, June 24, 191 1. 

"Arts and Crafts in Civic Improvement." Mrs. M. F. John- 
ston, The Chautauquan, June, 1906. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 817 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE MORAL AGENCIES AFFECTING THE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT 

Addams, J.— "The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets." 
Widely known as a challenge to the community responsi- 
ble for things that are out of joint. Full of suggestions 
to any one who is in earnest. $1.25, Macmillan. 

Adler, F. — "The Moral Instruction of Children." Deals avow- 
edly with the problem for the primary and grammar 
school grades. Important suggestions in the preface. 
$1.50, Appleton. 

Athearn, W. S. — -"The Responsibility of the Public School to the 
Family." Religious Education, 5:124-130. Shows the 
changed social conditions and suggests the school's real 
work with reference to the family. 

Bagley, W. C. — "The School's Responsibility for Directing Con- 
trols of Conduct." Elementary School Teacher, 8:349- 
360. Defines the aim of educational effort and relates 
the school's work in moral training to the "emotionalized 
prejudices." 

"The Present Status of Moral Education in Institutions for 

the Training of Teachers." Religious Education, 5:612- 
640. 

Barnes, C. W. — "Moral Training through the Agency of the 
Public Schools." Proc. N. E. A., 1909. Emphasizes im- 
portance of the teacher's personal influence. 

Brown, E. E. — "Government by Influence." One of a collec- 
tion of addresses with that title. Aims to show that the 
power of government by influence should increase and 
that this greatly concerns modern education. $1.35, 
Longmans. 

Brownlee, J. — "Character Building in School." Presents 
clearly the true basis of the teacher's equipment for his 
work. Abounds in real problems and practical sugges- 
tions. $1.00, Houghton. 

Brumbaugh, M. G— "The Problem Stated." In report of 
Committee on Moral Education, Proc. N. E. A., 191 1. 
Commented on in this book, chap. XXIII. 



818 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Cabot, E. L. — " Moral Training in the Public Schools." A sym- 
posium conducted by Frederic Allen Tupper. Journal of 
Education, 71 : 1 17-123. Has many practical suggestions. 

Carr, J. W. — "A Course by Grades." In report of Committee 
on Moral Education. Proc. N. E. A., 1911. Carefully 
prepared outline for course of instruction. The qualities 
demanded of the teacher are well chosen. 

"Scope of Moral Education in the Public Schools." New 

Jersey State Teachers' Association Proceedings, 1909. 
Covers somewhat same ground as preceding. 

"Means Employed in Teaching Morality in Public Schools." 

In "The Bible in Practical Life." $1.00, Relig. Educ. 
Assn. 

Carroll, C. F. — "Moral Instruction and Training in the Public 
Schools of New York." Religious Education, 5:640-644. 
Calls attention to spiritual influence of teachers even in 
"Godless" schools. 

Chubb, P. — "Direct Moral Education." Religious Education, 
6:106-113. Opposes vigorously the arguments of Pal- 
mers and Dewey against direct moral instruction. 

"The Function of the Festival in School Life." Pamphlet, 

Ethical Culture Co., New York. 

"Festivals and Plays in Schools arid Elsewhere." Shows 

how festivals may be used for moral training and gives 
descriptions in detail for carrying out the suggestions. 
$2.00, Harper. 

Coe, G. A. — "Education in Religion and Morals." Nearly half 
of the volume devoted to "selected and classified bib- 
liography." $1.35, Revell. 

Coleman, G. W. — "Education through Social Service." In 
"Education and National Character," a collection of 
monographs, several of which are indexed in this bib- 
liography. Presents numerous examples of the value of 
social service. $1.00, Relig. Educ. Assn. 

Cook, J. W. — "Moral Training in Secondary Schools." Illinois 
State Teachers' Association Proceedings, 1903. Empha- 
sizes importance of the person as a concrete embodiment 
of the moral code. 

Cope, H. F. — "A Selected List of Books on Moral Training and 
Instruction in the Public Schools." Religious Education, 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 819 

5:718-732. Carefully prepared and classified; used 
freely in preparing this bibliography. 

"Character Training of High School Boys." Association 

Boys, vol. VII, no. 4. Shows how the high school should 
meet the need of students in the four directions: physical 
exercise, self-knowledge, social training, study of ethical 
problems. 

Dewey, J. — "Moral Principles in Education." Crowded with 
stimulating suggestions and helpful warnings and argu- 
ments to show fallacy of many commonly accepted con- 
clusions. Every teacher should own this book. $.35, 
Houghton. 

"The Chaos in Moral Training." Popular Science Monthly, 

Aug., 1894. Strongly insists upon appeal to child's own 
consciousness of a reason for right doing. 

Drayton, H. S. — "Moral Education in the Schools." Field & 
Young, Jersey City. 

Dutton, S. T. — "Social Phases of Education in School and 
Home." One in a collection of addresses published under 
that title. Shows that vocational and cultural aims are 
one and the same. Insists on importance of social con- 
tact and social experience. $1.25, Macmillan. 

Eliot, C. W. — "Democracy and Manners." Century, 61:173- 
178. Interesting and helpful; brings out connection be- 
tween manners and morals, particularly in educational 
work. 

"Moral Training in the Public Schools." A symposium 

conducted by F. A. Tupper. Journal of Education, 71 : 
1 1 7-1 23. Develops clearly the fundamental moral truths 
that must be taught children in a democracy. 

Ellis, F. H. — "Character Forming in Schools." A tabulated 
outline, from actual experience, of exercises for work of 
this sort, in two parts — 1st, for an infants' school; 2d, for 
a girls' school. $.90, Longmans. 

Fairchild, M. — "The Moral Education Board." Atlantic Edu- 
cational Journal, 6:10-11, 28. Illustrated. Presents and 
illustrates the interesting work of this body (now called 
"National Institution for Moral Instruction"), with pho- 
tographs as carried out by Mr. Fairchild himself. 

Flack, A. G— "Moral Education." $.50, Cochrane Pub. Co. 



820 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Gilbert, C. B. — "The School and Its Life." Important chapters 
on the morale of the school and social functions of the 
school. $1.25, Silver, Burdette. 

Gillette, J. M. — "Vocational Education." Discussion of four 
well-recognized ends of education, viz., perfection, disci- 
pline, culture, vocational, as compared with social end. 
Important chapter on "Pathological Demands on Edu- 
cation." $1.00, American Book Co. 

Gladden, W.— " Effective Educational Unity." In "Educa- 
tional and National Character," a collection of mono- 
graphs. Quoted in chap. XXIII of this volume. $1.00, 
Relig. Educ. Assn. 

Goodwin, E. J. — "Exclusion of Religious Instruction from the 
Public Schools." Educational Review, 35: 129-138. "Sci- 
ence must meet the situation." 

Greenwood, J. M. — "Systematic Formal Moral Training in the 
Schools." Journal of Education, 71:740-741. Insists on 
a combination of both methods. 

Hall, G. S— "What Changes Should Be Made in Public High 
Schools to Make Them More Efficient in Moral Training? " 
Religious Education Association Proceedings, 1905. A 
systematic plan for increasing the efficiency of the schools 
in this regard. 

Hall, W. S.— "From Youth into Manhood." A sane, helpful 
guide for high school boys in matters of sex hygiene along 
the lines of Doctor Hall's effective addresses made before 
so many schools. $.50, Y. M. C. A. 

Harris, W. T. — "The Separation of the Church from the School 
Supported by Public Taxes." Proc. N. E. A., 1903. 
Contends for the necessity of this action. Challenges 
earnest attention and discussion such as its delivery called 
forth. 

Huntington, F. D. — "Unconscious Tuition." Full of inspira- 
tion to every real teacher. $.30, Bardeen. 

Hyde, W. D. — "Practical Ethics." A text-book for high schools 
in moral instruction. $1.00, Holt. 

Jenks, J. W. — "Life Questions of High School Boys." A con- 
venient manual for use in clubs for boys; has been used 
successfully in carrying out David R. Porter's suggestion 
about voluntary moral movements. $.40, Y. M. C. A. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 821 

Johnson, F. W. — ''Moral Education through School Activities." 
Religious Education, 6:493-502. An interesting study of 
conditions in English public schools and of methods 
used in experiments conducted especially at the University 
High School of the University of Chicago. 

King, H. C. — In "Education and National Character." A col- 
lection of monographs. Si. 00, Relig. Educ. Assn. 

Kirkland. J. H. — "Progress in Religious and Moral Education." 
Gratis. Relig. Educ. Assn. 

Leonard. M. H. — "Moral Training in Public Schools." Educa- 
tion, 3:218-223. Discussion of the effect of court de- 
cisions apparently excluding religious worship from the 
public schools. 

Mark, H. T. — " Individuality and the Moral Aim in Education." 
The Gilchrist Report presented to the Victoria Univer- 
sity. Comprehensive and interesting. Part I contains 
a general and thorough discussion of individuality in 
American education. Part II is a discussion of the 
moral aims in American education in its relation to the 
principle of individuality. Si. 50, Longmans. 

Martin. G. H. — "School Activities for Moral Development." 
Religious Education. 6:503-570. A valuable article call- 
ing attention to the responsibility resting on various agen- 
cies and the necessity for intelligent co-operation. 

Mead, G. H.— "Moral Training in the Schools." Elementary 
School Teacher, 9:327-328. Editorial, commenting espe- 
cially on the Fairchild and Brownlee systems and point- 
ing the only way in which the school can become an ef- 
fective moral agency. 

Reviews on several educational publications, particularly 

Sadler's " Report of an International Inquiry into Moral 
Training." Elementary School Teacher, 9:328. This re- 
view is clarifying. 

Moral Education Board. — "How It Was Done by the Moral 
Education Board." Brief monograph on the work of this 
body. Pamphlet, Natl. Inst, for Moral Inst., Baltimore. 

Mott, T. A. — "The Means Afforded by the Public School for 
Moral and Religious Education." Proc. N. E. A., 1906. 
Quoted in regard to manual training in chap. XXIII of 
this volume. 



822 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Myers, G. E. — "Moral Training in the School. A Comparative 
Study." Pedagogical Seminary, 13:409-460. Contains a 
bibliography. Appears as one of "The California Prize 
Essays." Advocates the policy that teachers be especially 
trained and then left free to work out individual methods. 

Page, W. H. — "Teaching Morals by Photographs." World's 
Work, 19:12715. A full and clear popular presentation 
of the Fairchild method. 

Palmer, G. H. — "Ethical and Moral Instruction in Schools." A 
masterly discussion of the issues involved in the three 
views regarding moral instruction. $.35, Houghton. 

• "The Ideal Teacher." One of the gems of educational lit- 
erature. $.35, Houghton. 

Partridge, G. E. — "Moral Education." A chapter in his "Ge- 
netic Philosophy of Education," which is a summary of 
the numerous writings and teachings of President G. 
Stanley Hall, and a most convenient handbook for 
teachers. The philosophy in this chapter is stimulating 
and is accompanied by many practical hints. $1.50, 
Sturgis & Walton. 

Porter, D. R. — "Moral Conditions in High Schools." Religious 
Education, 4 : 197-202. The report of a first-hand detailed 
study of conditions. Referred to in chap. XXIII of this 
volume. 

Reeder, R. R. — "Moral Training an Essential Factor in Elemen- 
tary School Work." Proc. N. E. A., 1908. Contains 
many thoughtful utterances. 

Rees, W. E. E— "The Folly of the Secular System." Fort- 
nightly Review, 89 : 905-913. Argues for the necessity of 
religious instruction. 

Rugh, C. E. — "Moral Training and Instruction in the Schools 
of California." Religious Education, 5:644-663. Avery 
elaborate report with many interesting details. 

" Moral Training in the Public Schools." The winning paper 

in the group known and published together as "The Cali- 
fornia Prize Essays." Referred to in chap. XXIII of this 
volume. $1.50, Ginn. • 

Sadler, M. E. — "Moral Instruction and Training in Schools." 
The result of an international inquiry with contributions 
from a large number of writers in many countries. See 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 823 

review of this book by G. H. Mead in Elementary School 
Teacher, referred to under his name in this bibliography. 
Two vols., $1.50 each, Longmans. 

Schroeder, H. H. — "The Psychology of Conduct; Applied to the 
Problem of Moral Education, in the Public Schools." 
$1.25, Row, Peterson. Calls attention to need for more 
men teachers and a higher salary schedule. 

Search, P. W. — -"The Ethical Basis of the School." A chapter 
in his "An Ideal School, or Looking Forward." An in- 
teresting book. $1.20, Appleton. 

Shallenberger, M. E. — "The Function of the School in Training 
for Right Conduct." Proc. N. E. A., 1908. Worth read- 
ing. Quoted in chap. XXIII of this volume. 

Sharp, F. C. — "A Study of the Influence of Custom on Moral 
Judgment." Deserves attention from thoughtful teach- 
ers as a careful, first-hand study of actual problems in 
moral judgment and how they may be dealt with. $.30, 
Univ. of Wis. 

Sharp, F. C, and Neumann, H. — "Course in Moral Instruction 
for the High School." School Review, 20:226-245. An 
elaborate outline with references. 

Sisson, E. O. — "Can Virtue Be Taught?" Educational Review, 
41:261-279. A historical discussion of theories with a 
hopeful appreciation of the value of child study. 

Slattery, M. — "The Girl in Her Teens." Sex hygiene for girls. 
$.50, S. S. Times Co. 

Spiller, G. — "Bibliography on Moral Instruction." In his "Re- 
port on Moral Instruction." Watts & Co., London. 

"Moral Education in Eighteen Countries." Part I, Atti- 
tude of the churches and the general problem of moral 
education. Part II, Detailed report of the procedure in 
each country considered. Part III, Bibliography, 56 
pages. Watts & Co., London. 

Stevenson, T. E. — " Moral Training in the Public Schools." One 
of the papers in the group included in "The California 
Prize Essays." Urges teaching of existing laws in the 
schools as a moral agency. $1.50, Ginn. 

Strayer, G. D— "The Legal Aspect of Moral Education." Re- 
ligious Education, 5:599-611. A comprehensive state- 



824 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

ment of legislation in different States on the subject of 
moral training and education. 

Sutton, W. S. — " Moral Instruction and Training in the Public 
Schools of Texas." Religious Education, 5:678-688. 
Presents a great variety of opinions. Points out the dan- 
ger in too great emphasis upon individualism. 

Suzzallo, H. — Introduction to Dewey's "Moral Principles in 
Education" listed in this bibliography. Quoted in chap. 
XXIII for its important definition of the fields of re- 
sponsibility in public education. 

Taylor, C. K— "The Moral Education of School Children." 
Printed for C. K. and H. B. Taylor, Philadelphia. 

Teitrich, R. B. — "The School as an Instrument of Character 
Building." National Education Association Proceedings, 
1908. Emphasizes importance of environment. 

Thomas, J. M. — "Moral Instruction in High Schools and Col- 
leges." University of the State of New York Convocation 
Proceedings, 1909. Issued as Educ. Dept. Bulletin no. 460. 

Thompson, W. O— "The Effect of Moral Education in the 
Public Schools upon the Civic Life of the Community." 
Proc.N.E. A. ,1906. Sets forth interesting reasons why the 
teacher's influence is conservative of democratic ideals. 

Tufts, J. H. — "How Far Is Formal Systematic Instruction De- 
sirable in Moral Training in the Schools." Religious Ed- 
ucation, 3:121-132. Quoted freely in chap. XXIII of 
this volume. 

Tupper, F. A. — "Moral Training in the Public Schools." Jour- 
nal of Education, 71:117-123. A symposium referred to 
in this bibliography under names of contributing authors. 

Votaw, C. W— "Moral Training in the Public Schools." Bib- 
lical World, 34:295-305. Emphasizes the social theory. 

Williams, C. W. — "Moral Training through Patriotism." One 
of the papers under the title, "Education and National 
Character." Proc. Relig. Educ. Assoc, 1908. An in- 
teresting presentation of the plans adapted in this line 
in various nations, and a definite proposition for American 
schools. 

Williams, H. G. — "The Scholar as an Instrument of Character 
Building." One of several addresses in Proc. N. E. A., 
1908. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 825 

Wilm, E. C. — "The Culture of Religion. Elements of Religious 
Education." A discussion of the aims and instruments 
of moral and religious education. Chap. Ill has espe- 
cially to do with the public school. Stimulating and 
reasonable. $.75, Pilgrim Press. 

Wilson, C. D. — "Making the Most of Ourselves." A text-book 
for high schools. Chapters of especial interest are those 
on meliorism, personal magnetism, the duty of learning 
to laugh, obscure success, the art of conferring benefits. 
Two series, $1.00 each, McClurg. 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT 

Adler, F.— "The Moral Instruction of Children." $1.50, Ap- 
pleton. 

Arendt, F. — "Ein Beitrag zur Reform des Religionsunterrichts." 
Halle, 1908. 1 

Bagley, W. C. — "The Pedagogy of Morality and Religion as Re- 
lated to Periods of Development." Religious Education, 
April, 1909. 

Barnes, C. W. — Proc. N. E. A., 1908, pp. 453-457. 

Bell, G. C. — "Religious Teaching in Secondary Schools." Lon- 
don, 1897. 

Brockman, F. S. — "A Study of the Moral and Religious Life 
of Two Hundred and Fifty-one Preparatory Students in 
the United States." Pedagogical Seminary, Sept., 191 2. 

Brown, E. E. — "The Culture of Righteousness." Methodist Re- 
view, Sept., 1909. 

Bryce, J. — "Religion and Moral Education." Religious Edu- 
cation, 4:30-40. 

Buisson, F. — "La Religion, la Morale et la Science." Paris, 
1900. 

Burton and Matthews. — "Principles and Ideals for the Sunday 
School." $1.00, Univ. of Chicago Press. 

foreign books whose publishers are not designated may be had 
through G. E. Stechert & Co., 1 51-155 West Twenty-fifth Street, 
New York. 



826 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Butler, N. M. — "The Meaning of Education." $1.00, Macmil- 
lan. 

Coe, G. A. — " Moral and Religious Education from the Psycho- 
logical Point of View." Religious Education, 3:165-179. 

" Progress in Religious and Moral Education." Religious 

Education, April, 1909. 

"Education in Religion and Morals." $1.35, Revell. 

Conway, J. — "Catholic Education in the United States." Edu- 
cational Review, Feb., 1905. 

Doring and others. — " Konf essionelle oder weltliche Schule?" 
Berlin, 1904. 

Faguet, E. — "L'Anti-Clericalisme." Paris. 

Faunce, W. H. P. — "Survey of Moral and Religious Progress." 
Educational Review, April, 1905. 

Franke, Th. — "Der Kampf um den Religionsunterricht." Leip- 
zig, 1909. 

Gansberg, F. — "Religionsunterricht?" Leipzig, 1906. 

Griinweller, A. — "Nicht Moral- sondern Religionsunterricht." 
Berlin, 1899. 

Hall, C. C. — "Progress in Religious and Moral Education." 
Educational Review, June, 1904. 

Hall, G. S. — "Adolescence." $7.50, Appleton. 

"Educational Problems." $7.50, Appleton. 

Harvey, W. L. — "How May the Teaching of Religion Be Made 
Potent for Morality?" Proc. Congress of Arts and Sci- 
ences, St. Louis, Houghton. 

Hirsch, E. G. — "Religious Education and Moral Efficiency." 
Religious Education, June, 1909. 

Home, H. H. — "Psychological Principles of Education." $1.75, 
Macmillan. 

Jackman, W. S. — "Nature Study and Religious Training." Ed- 
ucational Review, June, 1905. 

Jenks, J. W. — "Moral and Religious Training from the Social 
Sciences." Religious Education, Dec, 191 1. 

King, H. C— "The Future of Moral and Religious Education.' , 
Religious Education, Oct., 1909. 

Kirkland, J. H. — "Progress in Religious and Moral Education." 
Religious Education, April, 19 10. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 827 

McMurry, F. M. — "The Use of Biography in Religious Instruc- 
tion." In "Principles of Religious Education." Long- 
mans. 

Mott, T. A.— "The Means Afforded by the Public Schools for 
Moral and Religious Training." Proc. N. E. A., 1906, 
PP- 35-42. 

Moulton, R. G— "The Bible as Literature." $1.50, Crowell. 

Penzig, R. — "Zum Kulturkampf um die Schule." Berlin, 
1905. 

Potter, H. C. (editor). — "Principles of Religious Education." 
Longmans. 

Report of Committee on Moral Training in the Public Schools. 
In Proc. N. E. A., 1908, pp. 448-457. 

Rietschel, G. — "Zur Reform des Religionsunterrichts in der 
Volksschule." Leipzig, 1909. 

Sadler, M. E. — "Moral Instruction and Training in Schools." 
Report of an International Inquiry. Two volumes. 
$3.00, Longmans. 

"The Unrest in Secondary Education in Germany." Lon- 
don. 

Salter, W. M.— "The Bible in the Schools." American Ethical 
Union. 

Seeley, L. — "R.eligious Instruction in American Schools." Ed- 
ucational Review, Feb., 1898. 

Show, A. B. — "The Movement for Reform in the Teaching of 
Religion in the Public Schools of Saxony." United States 
Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1910, no. 1. 

Sisson, E. O. — "The Spirit and Value of Prussian Religious In- 
struction." American Journal of Theology, April, 1907. 

Spalding, J. L. — "Means and Ends of Education." $1.00, 
McClurg. 

Spiller, G. — "Moral Instruction in Eighteen Countries." Lon- 
don, 1909. 

Starbuck, E. D. — "Moral and Religious Education. Sociologi- 
cal Aspect." Religious Education, Feb., 1909. 

Tews, J. — " Schulkampfe der Gegenwart." Leipzig, 1906. 

Wilm, E. C— "The Problem of Religion." $1.25, Pilgrim Press. 

"The Culture of Religion. Elements of Religious Educa- 
tion." $.75, Pilgrim Press. 



828 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Proc. Congress of Arts and Sciences, vol. VIII, Houghton. 
Proc. International Moral Education Congress. London, 1908 Jf. 
Proc. Northern Illinois Teachers' Association. " Moral and Re- 
ligious Training in the Public Schools." Elgin, 111., 1908. 






APPENDIX 

THE UPWARD EXTENSION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL 

By Charles Hughes Johnston, Editor 

The following statement from Superintendent C. C. Starr, of 
Fresno, Cal., dated February 4, 19 14, is of interest and signifi- 
cance as relating to the problem of the upward extension of the 
American high school: 

"The junior college had its origin in California in Fresno. It 
is proving entirely satisfactory to patrons and educators in this 
community. The element of uncertainty on the start was that 
of the amount of patronage. The city is growing rapidly, and 
with it the junior college, so that now it is on a firm footing from 
every point of view. The junior college would probably not be 
successful except in the larger centres of population. The 
smaller the attendance, the higher the cost per capita. 

" The junior college has the advantage of being a college at 
home. Home life and home influence are best for the student. 
The economy of free home education is evident. The free home 
college opens up a college education to many who either could 
not or would not otherwise be able to secure its advantages. 
The junior college enlarges the number of centres of college in- 
fluence in the State, and in that way leaves its impress upon a 
larger and better-distributed citizenship. 

"The close relation to the high school results in economy in 
administration. The instructors in the junior college become 
heads of the high school departments, and teach some of the 
advanced high school subjects. The library and apparatus of 
the junior college are also at the command of the high school, 
and the high school department becomes unusually well equipped 
and strengthened as a consequence." 

California has, indeed, taken the lead in this "junior-college" 

829 



830 APPENDIX 

policy. Bills for State aid are formulated and are expected in 
the near future to be enacted into law. 

Professor Alexis F. Lange, Dean of the Faculties of the Uni- 
versity of California and head of its Educational Department, in 
tracing the development of the movement for the upward exten- 
sion of high schools in California, says that this movement aims 
to relegate the work of college freshmen and sophomore years in 
universities to the high schools sufficiently equipped to carry such 
work, and so to have American universities gradually approxi- 
mate the standards for entrance of the continental European 
universities. It is becoming more and more necessary to elimi- 
nate secondary studies in our highest institutions of learning 
and to put them in high schools where they belong. Presidents 
James of the University of Illinois and Judson of Chicago Uni- 
versity are vigorous proponents of this same idea. 

At the University of California the courses are divided into 
" lower division" and " upper division." The lower division in- 
cludes the freshman and sophomore years, and the completion 
of the lower-division work entitles the student to the "junior 
certificate." Only then, when he has qualified for this certificate, 
is the student enabled to become a member of the university 
proper; for the real university commences with the junior year 
and extends through the graduate courses. Hence, the first two 
college years are essentially preparatory, for the work of these 
years is only a continuation of preparatory education. By com- 
mencing to relegate all this secondary work to the secondary 
schools, the university aims to lessen the swamping of its 
premises with enrolments of freshmen and sophomores it is 
not equipped to care for. The present equipment is only suffi- 
cient for upper divisions, real university work. In view of the 
rapidly increasing population of this State, this policy becomes 
all the more imperative. President Judson, of Chicago, in this 
connection points out that thirty per cent of the work of the 
four-year A.B. course of the Liberal Arts College is of "secon- 
dary" not "collegiate" grade. 

Furthermore, Doctor Lange stated that, because of having to 
mass lower-division students at the University of California in 
very large classes, it is impossible to give them anything like the 
opportunities they need. The instructors and the equipment are 
overtaxed. He asserted expressly that Fresno students had a 



APPENDIX 831 

better chance and could do better college freshman and sopho- 
more work in their local " junior college" than at the university. 
Here, at home, in their small classes, they could get closer to, and 
keep closer to, their studies and to their instructors. 

One point Doctor Lange emphasizes clearly, namely, that the 
University of California would recognize, and could afford to 
recognize, the college work done by Fresno students in their 
home institution; that if the principal approved of the college 
work done by any student in Fresno High School, that work 
would be accepted by the university, and that it would count 
in every respect the same as if the work had been done at the 
University of California, and without the necessity of any further 
examinations. 

Doctor Lange also dwells on the opportunity "upward exten- 
sion" in the high school affords to students who will never go 
to a university, and who never intend to go, and how desirable 
it is for this college work to adapt itself to the needs of the com- 
munity. Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and other cities are fol- 
lowing the lead of Fresno in this development. 

The Fresno six-year high school curriculum, it should be noted, 
is also preparatory to the affiliated colleges at San Francisco, 
Hastings College of Law, and the California College of Medicine 
and Dentistry. Commencing with the year 1913, these colleges 
will require for entrance two more years of preparatory studies 
in addition to graduation from the regularly accredited high 
school. Students promoted from Fresno Junior College will be 
admitted to any of these affiliated colleges on equal terms with 
students who have completed the sophomore year at the Uni- 
versity of California, and without any examinations or condi- 
tions. 

Stanford University is also recognizing this upward extension 
movement. In fact, the term "junior college" is said to have 
originated with President Jordan. Professor Bentley, Stanford 
inspector, has expressed great interest and solicitude in having 
lower college work done in high schools. The two great Cali- 
fornia universities are, therefore, one in their attitude toward 
"junior-college" work in our secondary institutions. 

In addition to the advantages already indicated, the "fact" 
should commend itself, to parents particularly, that they are 
enabled to have their children at home, and under home influ- 



832 APPENDIX 

ences for two years longer, to say nothing of economy in ex- 
penses. This applies more especially to students living in or 
near the home city, but also to students from more remote 
homes who are enabled to be at home during the week's end. 

The State law governing high school tuition will also apply to 
junior-college students. 

President David Starr Jordan in 191 2 thus expressed his 
views: 

"I am looking forward, as you know, to the time when the 
large high schools of the State in conjunction with the small col- 
leges will relieve the two great universities from the expense and 
from the necessity of giving instruction of the first two uni- 
versity years. The instruction of these two years is of necessity 
elementary and of the same general nature as the work of the high 
school itself. It is not desirable for a university to have more 
than about two thousand students gathered together in one 
place, and when the number comes to exceed that figure then 
some division is desirable. The only reasonable division is that 
which will take away students who do not need libraries or 
laboratories for their work. The value of the university is 
highly dependent on its possession of great and expensive libra- 
ries. I am interested in the experiment which is going on at 
Fresno and in high schools in Los Angeles." 

Professor Alexis F. Lange, Dean of the Faculties, University of 
California, has this to say : 

"Far-sighted and progressive educators are agreed that the 
establishment of 'Junior Colleges' denotes a necessary develop- 
ment in the right direction. Such extensions of the four-year 
high school would (1) enable the universities to concentrate their 
efforts on university work proper, (2) receive for young people 
from eighteen to twenty years of age the immense educational 
advantage of being taught and trained in small groups, not far 
from home, (3) make it possible for thousands who are unable 
to attend a university to round out their general education, (4) 
reduce very materially the cost of college and university educa- 
tion, (5) provide — a most important factor — finishing vocational 
courses in agriculture, the industries, commerce, applied civics, 
domestic science, etc., which cannot be adequately provided 
either by the four-year high school or by the universities, (6) tend 
to create a number of educational centres of a high order whose 



APPENDIX 



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834 APPENDIX 

influence for good would extend in many directions over large 
areas of the State. 

" The State University has stood for the junior-college plan for 
more than fifteen years, and its policy is to further the establish- 
ment of junior colleges in every possible way. This implies, of 
course, that the university stands ready to recognize the courses 
of junior colleges as the equivalent of corresponding courses at 
Berkeley and to give full credit for successfully completed work. 

" The city of Fresno is to be greatly congratulated on being the 
first city in the State to establish a junior college. May this 
prosper and become year by year more useful, especially to those 
who would otherwise have to forego the chance of higher voca- 
tional training. Those recommended for university work at 
Berkeley will, I feel confident, have no reason to regret that their 
freshman and sophomore work was done in Fresno." 

President E. J. James, of the University of Illinois, further 
calls attention to the necessity that high schools, thus extended 
in equipment and instructorial force, relieve State universities 
of much of the present elementary " extension service" they are 
now forced to render communities, such as water analysis, elemen- 
tary advice in sanitary and other forms of engineering, agricul- 
ture, and public health. 

In this connection it should be noted that five high schools in 
Illinois have now practically "Junior College" annexes. 

The schematically arranged instructional programme for the 
thus " extended" public-school system of Fresno gives the reader 
some idea of the scope and differentiation of work now possible, 
and also of the possible further extensions in various directions. 

STUDIES AND ABBREVIATIONS 

Language and Literature 
English — E. 

Pre- Normal, English Grammar (A) Gr. 
Latin — L. Modern Language — ML. 
German — G. 
French — F. 
Spanish — Sp. 

History 
Ancient History — Hi. 
Med. and Mod. History — H2. 



APPENDIX 835 



English History — H3. 
U. S. History and Civics — H4. 
Mod. European History — H5. 
Industrial History — H5. 
Institutional History — H6. 

Mathematics 
Elementary Algebra — Mi. 
Plane Geometry — M2. 
Solid Geometry (B) — M3. 
Trigonometry (A) — M3. 
Advanced Algebra — M4. 
Synthetic Projective Geometry (B) — M5. 
Plane Analytical Geometry (A) — M5. 
Differential Calculus (B)— M6. 
Integral Calculus (A)— M6. 

Surveying 

Surveying — SU5. 

Pre-Normal Arithmetic (B) — A. 

Science, Pure and .Applied 
General Science — GSi. 
General Agriculture — Ag2. 
Chemistry — C3. 
Dairying (B) — Ag3. 
Soil and Crops (A) — Ag3. 
Animal Husbandry (B) — Ag4. 
Farm Mechanics and Management (A) — Ag4. 
Physics — P4. 
Advanced Physics — P6. 
Organic Chemistry — C5. 
Qual. Chem. Analysis (B)— C6. 
Quant. Chem. Analysis (A)— C6. 

Music 
Technic and History — MU3. 
History and Interpretation — M114. 

Drawing and Art Work 
Free-Hand Drawing — D. 
Art Metal— AM4. 
Geometric Drawing — GD3. 

Commercial 
Com'l Arithmetic — CA3. 
Short Hand — S. 



836 APPENDIX 

Typewriting — T. 
Com'l Law (B)— CL3. 
Economics (A) — Ec. 

Mechanical Training 
Woodwork — W. 
Machine Shop — MS. 

Domestic Training — DT 
Cooking and Sewing. 

College Electives — (CE) elected from high school undergraduate sub- 
jects, comprising E3, E4, L3, L4, G2, G3, G4, F2, F3, F4, Sp2, Sp3, 
H4, M3, M4, C3, P4, D(2), GD3(2), which studies are available for 
advanced university credits. 

Notes 

1. In the courses, expressed by abbreviated notation used on the reci- 
tation schedules, the heavily typed subjects are required. Studies in 
lighter type are recommended as preferable, but students may substitute 
other electives. 

2. The following studies are required: Ei, E2, two years of history in- 
cluding H4 usually, two years of science for boys, one of which must be 
either C3 or P4, at least one year of science for girls, which must be either 
C3 or P4 for girls intending to enter the university, and Mi and M2 ex- 
cept for pupils taking only two years commercial course. 

3. Undergraduate students are expected to carry four full studies; in 
addition they may, without asking permission, carry also a "half-credit" 
study, i. e., one period per day in one of the following: AM, D, GD, T, 
and W. But pupils may not take five full studies without the permis- 
sion of the principal, except in the senior year in order to graduate. 

4. Junior-college students who expect to continue work in the univer- 
sity must take five full subjects for two years in order to qualify for the 
"junior certificate" at the university. 

Junior-college students not intending to go to the university are free to 
elect any studies given in the high school. 

5. Pupils who do not wish to pursue a regular course, as listed above, 
may elect studies as they wish, except that they must meet the require- 
ments mentioned in note 2. 

6. One year of Latin is urged before commencing any modern language. 
Students commencing a modern language are urged to continue at least 
two years in the language selected. 

7. (B) Denotes first term, (A) second term subjects. The number 
after abbreviations denotes the year in which the study regularly comes. 
The number in parenthesis after the study denotes periods per day. 

8. If L3 and L4 are not taken in the high school, social-science students 



APPENDIX 837 

must complete them at the university. The university recommends that 
these studies be finished in the high school. 

9. Members of musical organizations, if working under the direction 
of the musical director, and practising the equivalent of one hour per 
school day throughout the year are entitled to a full-term credit. 

10. Any single study five times per week for one year counts as i unit; 
1 6 units are required to graduate. 

From the important point of view of the future character of 
strictly "collegiate" and "university" work, contingent upon 
the above-sketched developments in high school education, the 
following quotation from President Judson, taken from The 
President's Report of the University of Chicago, 1911-12, may well 
be carefully considered: 

"In the Annual Report for 1910-11 (pp. 11-15) attention was 
given to what w r as believed to be the undue length of the course 
of study in our various schools and colleges. It was urged that 
at least tw^o years should be eliminated from this course, and that 
this ought to be done without lessening efficiency of instruction. 

" As a further contribution to this study I am glad now to report 
that in the University Elementary School (one of the laboratory 
schools in the School of Education) one step toward this time- 
saving has already been taken successfully. It has been found 
possible to accomplish all the purposes of the elementary school 
in seven grades instead of eight, and this change has been effected. 
Boys and girls, in other words, hereafter will pass through the 
elementary school and reach the high school one year earlier 
than heretofore has been the case, and it is believed that they are 
no less qualified to take up high school work. 

" This leaves the question of saving still another year as between 
the high school and the early years of the colleges. 1 

" As bearing on this subject, attention is invited to the situation 
in the curricula of the colleges. An investigation of this subject 
shows plainly that from 20 to 30 per cent of the work required in 
the four-year college course is in content and essentially in mode 
of treatment merely high school work. In other words, we re- 
quire the student in order to enter one of the colleges to have 

1 It will be seen that the suggestion of saving only one more full year 
is a modest one when we observe from Table XX, p. 196, that the median 
age of graduation June, 191 2, was 22.90, showing that the median age 
of entering college for these students was about 19. 



838 APPENDIX 

spent four years in a good high school, and then, not satisfied 
with that, we require him before taking serious college work to 
spend at least a year more in high school training. 

" Obviously this leads to the question as to what is the distinc- 
tion, if any, between work properly adapted to the high school 
and work better adapted to the college. Is not almost every sub- 
ject taught in colleges also made a part of the high school cur- 
riculum? 

"The answer to these questions is on the whole not difficult 
and is rather easily found by an inspection of the content of the 
courses of instruction. In general terms it may be said that the 
content of a high school course is essentially elementary, whereas 
the content of a college course, involving more maturity of mind 
and of treatment, is distinctly advanced in character. 1 

"The application of these principles is obvious. In the first 
years of the colleges instruction is given for two full years in 
elementary French and in elementary German, and one full year 
in general history; to the extent of two thirds of a year in English 
composition and literature; to the extent of one quarter in polit- 
ical science; and also there is more or less elementary work in 
Latin, in physics, in chemistry, in mathematics, and in biology. 
The content of these courses is not different essentially from that 
of the same subjects as treated in the high school classes. The 
students, of course, are a year older; otherwise there is no material 
difference. All of these things should be taught in the high 
school, and it is difficult to see any adequate reason for requiring 
five years instead of four years of high school instruction. A stu- 
dent really begins his college work when he has finished his fifth 
high school year, usually misnamed the college freshman year. 

" What is gained by doing this large amount of elementary work 
at the beginning of the college course? No doubt, the student is 
put in the way of learning something of some branches of knowl- 
edge which did not come his way in the high school. Would not 
this, however, quite as well justify a sixth year or a seventh year 
of the elementary subjects? The field of knowledge is wide, 
and the amount of elementary knowledge which any given indi- 
vidual can attain on a multiplicity of subjects is limited only by 

1 Also, no doubt, a college course may well include subjects which in 
their nature belong to a relative maturity of mind. Perhaps Sanskrit 
and philosophy may be cited as illustrative. 



APPENDIX 839 

the time at his disposal. Is it not idle to attempt to cover the 
whole field of human knowledge in the case of any one student? 
Why not frankly recognize that there are some things which even 
an intelligent and educated man is not expected to know very 
much about? 

" A distinctly injurious effect of this additional high school year 
lies in the fact that when a student — a young man or woman 
seventeen or eighteen years old — enters college he finds that 
there is not a more intellectual atmosphere; he finds himself 
doing the same sort of things in essentially the same sort of way, 
perhaps in fact not quite so well, as was the case in the school 
from which he comes. How can we expect under these circum- 
stances that the student shall get any new intellectual eager- 
ness? How can we expect that he will not make up his mind 
that, after all, study doesn't yield anything very fresh or of any 
great value? How can we expect that he should not find far 
more interest and value in the multiform activities which beset 
the student on his entering college? The average student is by 
no means deficient in intellectual acumen. He generally forms a 
fairly accurate judgment as to what is worth while and what is 
not worth while, and I strongly suspect that the dissipation of 
energy which marks the early years of the college course is not 
something which results primarily from the innate pernicious 
qualities of freshmen but that it comes more likely from an irra- 
tional requirement by college authorities. In other words, on 
entering college the student should find that he is studying ad- 
vanced subjects in a new way, treated seriously, and yielding 
results which he at once realizes to be of importance to himself. 

" An examination of the record sheets of a number of our own 
students who have been graduated from the colleges in recent 
years substantiates what has been said above as to the amount of 
elementary subjects of high school nature which form part of the 
college curriculums. No complete study has been made of the cur- 
riculums of other colleges. Still it may be said that conversation 
with parents and students who are in a position to know what 
some other important colleges are doing would lead to the same 
conclusion as above. 

" The best thing to do with the freshman year is to abolish it." 



INDEX 



Administration of athletics, 440- 
443- 

Adolescent, 730. 

Adolescent and debate, 463, 464. _ 

Advisory Board of student functions, 
416, 417. 

Advisory Council of student func- 
tions, 417. 

Agassiz, 634. 

Agricultural schools, 569. 

Ailments, communicable, 684; non- 
communicable, 682, 683. 

Aims of athletics, 443, 444. 

Aims of high school, 36. 

Alabama, state laws of, 68, 69. 

Alderman, Superintendent of Oregon, 

233, 234- 
Altruism and individualism, 506-510. 
American Institute of Child Life, 320- 

322. 
Apparatus, gymnastic, 458-460; out- 
door, 460-462. 
Arizona, state laws of, 84. 
Arkansas, state laws of, 72, 73. 
Art Association of Richmond, Ind., 

694-700; management of, 700-705. 
Art association, 695; opportunity for 

new relationships, 702. 
Art centre, high school as the, Chapter 

XXVIII. 
Art clubs, 423, 703. 
Art gallery, exhibits of, 696-698; open 

days for, 704; schoolhouse for, 606. 
Articulation of elementary and high 

school, 624. 
Artists, local, 703, 704. 
Athletics, high school, Chapter XVII, 

411, 423; administration of, 440- 

443; student interest in, 442. 
Attendance, high school (1911-12), 

21; (1889-90), 21; increase in, 22. 
Austria, elementary education in, 174, 

175- 
Authorities, testimony of school, 512- 

Si4- . 

Avocation, relation to social activi- 
ties, 640, 641; relation to vocation, 
637-639- 

Avocational guidance, Chapter XXV; 
the school and, 644-653. 

Avocational pursuits, prevalence of, 
633-637. 



Avocational training, needs of, 641- 

644. m 
Avocations and diversions, 632. 
Ayres, L. P., 429, 430. 

Bad boys and girls, 712. 

Bagley, W. C, 719, 728, 729. 

Bailey, H. T., 706. 

Barnes Law, 49, 80. 

Berlin, N. H., 234. 

Berry, C. S., 674. 

Biblical History, specific instruction 
in, 747-751. 

Biblical Literature, specific instruc- 
tion in, 747-751. 

Bliss, W. D. P., 600. 

Boise Survey, 392. 

Boston, 337; High School of Com- 
merce, 663-665. 

Brown, J. Stanley, 389. 

Bruce, H. Addington, 290. 

Brumbaugh, Martin, 35s- 

Buildings, high school, 22; decoration 
of, 339, 340; number of (1889-1910), 
103. 

Bureau of School Efficiency, functions 
of, no; files of, no. 

Business enterprise, high school as, 
Chapter IV. 

Business manager for schools, 114; 
office established, 115; rules and 
regulations of, 115. 

Butler, N. M., 741. 

California, state laws of, 89-93. 
Calvinists, attitude on education, 

164, 165. 
Canada, elementary and secondary 

education in, 175. 
Caste system, 172. 
Cattell, J. McK., 406. 
Central Commercial and Manual 

Training High School of Newark, 

N. J., 296-306. 
Central High School, Grand Rapids, 

Mich., 422. 
Centralization tendency, 134, 135. 
Centre of social life, high school as, 

534-536. 
Character, laboratory for, 436, 437. 
Charts, physical development, 447- 

452. 



841 



842 



INDEX 



Chesterton, G. K., 737. 

Choice of games, 445-451. 

Cicero Township High School, 662, 663. 

Cincinnati, co-operative plan, Univer- 
sity of, 223, 224. 

Citizens' Committee, 318. 

Civic activity, centre of, 536, 537. 

Civic and social equipment of teach- 
ers, 405. 

Civic phase of library, 559, 600. 

Clark, Lotta, 240-244. 

Classification of high school teachers, 
402-404. 

Class management, Chapter IX. 

Class organization, 253, 254. 

Class organizations, 424. 

Cleveland Technical High School, 222. 

Clubs, art, 423; dramatic, 421, 422; 
leadership, 418; musical, 422, 423. 

Coaching, athletic, 454. 

Coleridge, 634. 

Colgrove, C. P., 266, 267. 

College fraternity, 506-509. 

Colleton, E., 624, 625. 

Colonies, Dame schools in, 164; Latin 
or grammar schools in, 164; ver- 
nacular schools in, 164. 

Colorado, state laws of, 82, 83. 

Commercial high school, 566. 

Commission plan of debate, 472, 473. 

Committee of Ten, report of, 169. 

Common aims, absence of, 658. 

Commons, John R., 226, 227. 

Community need versus traditional 
pedagogy, 3 13-31 5- 

Community, principal's new attitude 
toward, 521, 522, 526-528. 

Complete living, 692. 

Concentration in study, 302. 

Conduct of sports, 440-442. 

Connecticut, state laws of, 63, 64. 

Continuation schools, administration 
of, 588-590; awakened interest in, 
552; history of, 547-552; principles 
governing, 535, 554; Wisconsin, 
226, 227. 

Continuation work in high school, 
Chapter XXII, obstacles to, 589, 
590; types of, 557-573- 

Cooley, E. G., 227, 228, 554, 555. 

Co-operation, 3, 4, 16-19; various 
phases of, 665, 666. 

Co-operation between high school and 
Sunday school, 755-759. 

Co-operation in the teaching of En- 
glish, Chapter XXVI; importance 
of, 654; a problem of economics, 661. 

Co-operative agencies, the school's, 
Chapter XIII, 331,332. 



Co-operative plan, 223-225. 

Cost of public school (1889-1910), 103. 

Courses of ^"dy, elasticity of, 230- 
233. 

Credits, school, 426, 427. 

Cubberley, E. B., 47, 89-92. 

Cultural centre, high school as, 539- 
542. 

Cultural education, need of, 35. 

Cultural phase of library, 600, 601. 

Culture of religion, 744-746. 

Current problems in high school ac- 
counting, 117. 

Curriculum, concentration of, 201; 
distribution of, 200; enrichment of, 
169, 170; general, 198, 203, 204; 
necessity for reorganization, 179, 
180; secular, for religious culture, 
744, 745; thinking, 388. 

Daily work as a moral agency, 725. 

Dame schools in colonies, 164. 

D. A. R., 337- 

Darwin, Charles, 634. 

Darwin, Erasmus, 634. 

Davis, Bessie D., questionnaire on 

vocational guidance, 613-616. 
Davis, Sir Humphrey, 634. 
Debaters, selection of, 470. 
Debates, genuine and pseudo, 464, 

465, 470, 471; inter- high school, 

474, 475; methods of, 467-474. 
Debating activities, Chapter XIX. 
Debating instinct, 463, 464. 
Debating societies, 421, 465-474. 
Decoration of school buildings, 339, 

340, 698-700. 
De Garmo, Charles, 746-751. 
Delaware, state laws of, 64, 65. 
Department, library recognized as, 

604, 605. 
Dewey, John, 18, 711, 726. 
Dickinson, G. Lowes, 740. 
Direct moral instruction, 724, 725. 
Diseases, high school students, 677, 

682, 685. 
Diversions, avocations and, 632. 
Division of school day, 298, 299. 
Dramatic clubs, 421, 422. 
Draper, Andrew S., 58, 59. 
Dukes, Doctor, 287, 288. 

East Technical High School, 
Cleveland, Ohio, 275. 

Editorial policy, 16-19. 

Educational expert, a public neces- 
sity, 93, 94- 

Educational guidance, 198, 205, 206, 
612-617, 



INDEX 



843 



Educational systems of Europe, 172. 

Educational value of athletics, 435, 
436. 

EIemr- / -u,y edu- tion, in Austria, 
17. . 175; in Canada, 175; in En- 
gland, 174; in France, 174; in Ger- 
many, 172-174; in Japan, 175; in 
Sweden, 175. 

Elimination, causes of, 624, 625. 

Eliot, C. W., 711, 718. 

Elliott, E. C, 397. 

Emotions, education of, 692-694. 

Employers, educational demands of, 
217. 

England, elementary and secondary 
education in, 174. 

English and other studies, 658-660. 

English composition, 486-490. 

Enrolment, in high school (1890- 
1911), 106, no; distribution of, in; 
of high school teachers (191 1), 105; 
of public school teachers (1889- 
1910), 102, 103. 

Equipment, physical education, 456- 
462. 

Ethical imperative, 739. 

Eugenics, 669-671. 

Europe, educational systems of, 172; 
industrial training in, 228. 

Evening schools, 569-573. 

Examination, medical, 681-684. 

Exceptional children, 583, 584. 

Exercise, definition of, 431. 

Exhibits, schedule of, for one season, 
701. 

Expenditure per pupil (1900) (1909), 
103, 104. 

Extension courses, 586-588. 

Extension of public education, 5 1 7-5 1 9. 

Faculty adviser of debates, 474; 

meetings, 387-391; relation of, to 

debating societies, 465-467. 
Family, responsibility of the, 713, 714; 

school and the, 723, 724. 
Financial reports of high school, 132. 
Financial status of high school, 44-47 ; 

need of revision of, 47-50. 
Fitchburg, Mass., co-operative plan, 

223; schools of, 575. 
Fleury, Maurice, Doctor, 291. 
Florida, state laws of, 71. 
Forbes, George M., 537. 
Formal Discipline, 198. 
Fortbildungschulen, 546. 
France, elementary and secondary 

education in, 174. 
Fraternities, high school, Chapter XX, 

416, 424. 



Fraternities, legal status of, 515, 516; 
substitute for, 514. 

Froebel, 301, 302. 

Functions, of high school, 24; of prin- 
cipal, 362, 363; of superintendent, 
362. 

Galileo, 634. 

Gallery in high school, 698-700. 

Gang spirit, 503-506. 

G. A. R., 337. 

Gedinhagen, 284, 285. 

General high school, 563-565. 

Geography, 486. 

Georgia, state laws of, 71. 

Germany, 751, 752; continuation 
schools of, 546; elementary and 
secondary education in, 172-174. 

Girls' High School, library of, Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., 593- 

Grading, by pupils, 258, 259; methods 
of, 666, 667. 

Grammar of Latin schools in colonies, 
164. 

Grand Rapids Central High School, 
595- 

Grice, M. V., 333, 336, 337. 

Grote, 633. 

Grouping of studies, 372. 

Group work, examples, of 254, 255, 
264. 

Guidance avocational, Chapter XXV; 
educational, 198, 205, 206; voca- 
tional, Chapter XXIV, 205, 206. 

Gymnasiums, equipment of, 456-462; 
temporary, 460; typical, 456-458. 

Gymnastics, high school, Chapter 
XVII. 

Hall, G. S., 323, 724. 

Hanus, P. H., 611,612. 

Harris, W. T., 718. 

Harrison, Birge, 703. 

Heredity and the high school, 671, 

672. 
Hero-Worship, 717. 
Herschel, F. W., 634. 
High school as aid to young workers, 

215, 220, 221. 
High school as cultural centre, 539-542 . 
High school as social centre, 334-336. 
High school athletics, 41 1, 423. 
High school, development of, 503. 
High sch >.>!, early, 209. 
"High School Education," Charles 

Hughes Johnston, Ed., [2, [6,388, 

!"|. 476, 557, O74, 750. 
High school education, changing scope 

of, 216. 



844 



INDEX 



High school fraternities, Chapter XX, 
416-424. 

High school "Major," 201. 

High school "Minor," 201 

High school paper, 490-497. 

High school principal, 526-528. 

High school, small, 202. 

Historic conception of high school, 25, 
27. 

History, 486. 

Holland, Superintendent, 125, 127. 

Home and School Association, Chap- 
ter XII, 316; Activities of, 318, 319; 
aims of, 317; constitution of, 348- 
351; formation of, 331; material 
benefits of, 336-339; methods of, 
317, 318; organization of, 346, 347; 
purpose of, 332; ultimate goal of, 
326, 327. 

Home and school visitor, 324, 352, 353. 

Home study, conference period for, 
297; reform, 295; school study 
versus, Chapter XI; traditional 
methods of, 290. 

Horace Mann School, 534; administra- 
tion of, 673-678; divisions of, 675, 
676; educational, 673. 

Humboldt, 711. 

Hygiene, 245, 246, 252, 263; of the 
high school, Chapter XXVII; sex, 
322. _ 

Hygienic teaching in high school, 689- 
691. 

Idaho, state laws of, 86, 87. 

Ideal of high school, 16. 

Illinois, state laws of, 75, 76. 

Imitative instinct, 501-503. 

Immigrants, 556. 

Improvement of high school teachers in 
service, Chapter XV, 382, 383, 584. 

Indiana, state laws of, 74, 75. 

Individual education, a necessity to- 
day, 170. 

Individualism and altruism, 506-510. 

Industrial high school, 567. 

Industrial training in Europe, 228. 

Industry, the child in, 623. 

In loco parentis, 712, 713. 

Inspection, health, 686. 

Inter-high school debating, 474-483; 
difficulties of, 479-483. 

Intermediate department, text-books 
for, 189, 190. 

Internal government of high school, 
Chapter XIV. 

Institutionalism, 221, 222. 

Iowa, state laws of, 78. 

Ittner, W. B., 698. 



James, William, 726, 746. 

Japan, elementary education in, 175. 

Japanese Imperial Rescript, 720. 

Jefferson, Joseph, 633. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 633. 

Jenks, Professor, 419. 

Jersey City High School, 544. 

Johnson-Jeffries, 489. 

Johnston, Charles Hughes, "High 

School Education," 12, 16, 388, 389, 

464, 476, 557, 674. 
Joiner, C. E., 77. 
Joliet, 111., 389. 
Jones, O. M., 266. 
Journalism, high school, Chapter 

XVIII. 
Junior Association of Commerce, 425. 
"Jury Plan" of debate, 472, 473. 

Kansas, conditions in secondary 
schools of, 141-163; state laws of, 
79, 80. 

Kansas City, Kans., 371; schools of, 
577- 

Kansas City, Mo., 361. 

Kansas City Star, 488. 

Kant, 739. 

Kentucky, state laws of, 70. 

Key, Ellen, 323. 

Klapper, Paul, 367. 

Ladies' Circle and Corps, 337. 

Lange, Alexis F., 356. 

Latin or Grammar Schools in Colo- 
nies, 164. 

Leadership Clubs, 418. 

Legal status of the high school, Chap- 
ter III. 

Legislation, need for (fraternities), 
516. 

Library, high school, Chapter XXIII; 
function of, 591-595; extension, 
"Packet Libraries," 320. 

Life career, interest in, 608, 609. 

Lindsey, Judge Ben, 18. 

Literary societies, 421. 

Local paper, writing for, 497. 

Los Angeles High School, 235, 236, 
543- 

Louisiana, state laws of, 71. 

Maine, state laws of, 51, 52. 

"Major," high school, 201. 

Manual training in high school, 210; 
as a moral agency, 726; pedagogi- 
cal value of, 218. 

Maryland, state laws of, 65, 66. 

Massachusetts, state laws of, 56, 57. 

Material equipment, 5-9. 






INDEX 



845 



McAndrew, William, 18. 
McMurray, F. M., 267. 
Medical examination, 681-684. 
Medical inspection, athletics and, 454, 

456. 
Medical sociology, 668, 669. 
Medical supervision, 678, 679. 
Michigan, state laws of, 77, 78, 102. 
Minnesota, state laws of, 53, 54. 
"Minor," high school, 201. 
Mississippi, state laws of, 72. 
Missouri, state laws of, 78, 79. 
Montana, state laws of, 84, 85. 
Montclair, N. J., 337. 
Montessori, 301, 302. 
Moral agencies, Chapter XXIX. 
Moral agencies, co-operation of, 711; 

direct, of reflective morality, 708; 

indirect, 707; of custom, 708; other 

than school, 708-710; the teacher, 

the chief, 732, 733. 
Moral and religious problems, 341, 

342. 
Moral training, recognition by the 

state of, 721. 
Morris, William, 696. 
Mortality, high school, 112, 220, 304. 
"Mothers' Meetings," 316. 
Mundy, William James, 633. 
Municipal problems, 325. 
Musical clubs, 422, 423. 

National Congress for Mothers, 
338. 

National Council of Teachers of En- 
glish, 607. 

Nebraska, state laws of, 81, 82. 

Nevada, state laws of, 85. 

Newark, N. J., High School of, 687; 
library work in schools of, 599, 600. 

New Hampshire, state laws of, 60-62. 

New Jersey, state laws of, 65. 

New Mexico, state laws of, 86. 

Newspaper, studying the, 484, 485; as 
an aid in history and geography, 
486; as an aid in English composi- 
tion, 486-490. 

Newton, annual reports of School 
Committee, 119, 120, 128-132; 
schools of, 624. 

New York, state laws of, 57-60. 

New York Times, 490. 

North Bennett Street Industrial 
School, 625-627. 

North Carolina, state laws of, 67, 68. 

North Dakota, state board of educa- 
tion of, 758; state laws of, 54, 55. 

Nurses, duties of physicians and, 679, 
680. 



Obstacles to continuation work, 
589, 59o. 

Ohio, state laws of, 73, 74. 

Ohio Survey, 402. 

Oklahoma, state laws of, 73. 

Open days for art gallery, 704. 

Open-debate plan, 472. 

Opposing views of high schools, 9, 10. 

Oregon, state laws of, 88, 89. 

Organization, class, 253, 254. 

Organizations, class, 424. 

Outworn conceptions of religious edu- 
cation, 742-744. 

Overspecialization, evils of, 656, 657. 



"Packet Libraries," 320. 
Palmer, Alice Freeman, 711. 
Palmer, George H., 404. 
Parents, library lectures to, 601, 602. 
"Parent-teacher groups," 316. 
Part-time schools, 573-581. 
Patriotism as a basis for morality, 

720. 
Paulsen, Frederick, 196, 741, 752. 
Pennsylvania, state laws of, 55, 56. 
Pensions for teachers, arguments for, 

136-138. 
"People's College," 9. 
People's High School, 584-586. 
Per capita costs, comparison of, for 

elementary and secondary pupils, 

125; interpretation of, 124, 125; 

methods of obtaining, 120, 121; 

table of, 123; variations in, 121, 122. 
Permanent collection of works of art, 

704, 705. 
Perry, C. A., 335. 
Philadelphia Home and School League, 

3i7, 330, 337- # 
Physical education, 30-32; character 

value of, 436-438; definition and 

aims, 430, 431 ; educational value of, 

435; forms of, 431 (exercise, 431; 

work, 431; play, 432); hygienic 

value of, 432, 433; recreative value 

of, 434; social value of, 434, 435. 
Physical instructor, 444, 445. 
Physicians and nurses, duties of, 679, 

680. 
Physiology, 245, 246, 263. 
Plan of book, 16-19. 
Plans for supervised study, 280-282. 
Plato, 232, 711. 
Practical arts, high school, Boston, 

236-238. 
Pre-apprenticeship schools, 559, 560. 
Preventability of deaths of high school 

pupils, 677, 678. 



846 



INDEX 



Prevocational course, results of, 626- 
628. 

Principal, function of, 362, 363, 661- 
665; new attitude toward com- 
munity, 521, 522, 526-528. 

Principal's day, 394. 

Problems, typical high school, 11, 12. 

Professional reading, 383-387. 

Programme of high school, flexibility 
of, 39-41; instructional, 12; place of 
physical education in, 438-440. 

Promotion of high school teachers, 
396; of high school students, 303. 

Public education, changing content of, 
528-531. 

Public opinion in schools, 730. 

Qualities, desirable of different 

GAMES, 446-451. 

Questionnaire, vocational guidance, 

613-623. 
Questions for debates, discussion of, 

469, 470; selection of, 468, 476, 477; 

study of, 468, 469. 

Recitation, type of, 301, 302. 

Records, school, 425, 426. 

Recreation, 434. 

Recreation centre, 538, 539. 

Relation of high school to elementary 
school, Chapter V, 175-178; to 
higher educational institutions, 
Chapter VI; to industrial life of 
community, Chapter VII. 

Relationship between principal and 
teachers, 364. 

Religion, as social fact, 737, 738; as 
Weltanschauung, 738, 739. 

Religion in public education, 741- 

744/ 

Religious education, outworn concep- 
tions of, 742-744; in the home, 322- 
324. 

Religious life of the high school stu- 
dent, Chapter XXX. 

Religious and moral problems, 341, 
342. 

Reports, financial, 132. 

Rhode Island, state laws of, 60. 

Rhodes scholarship, 376. 

Ribot, 290, 291. 

Richmond, Indiana, 337, 694. 

Richmond, Va., 338. 

Right arm, the high school's, Chapter 
XII. 

Riley, James Whitcomb, 488, 489. 

Rochester, N. Y., 371, 393, 408. 

Roosevelt, T., 481, 482. 

Ross, E. A., 359. 



Royce, J., 740. 

Rules governing student organiza- 
tions, 419, 420. 
Rural high school, 7, 8, 523. 
Ruskin, 611. 



Sadler, M. E., 715, 726, 752. 

Salary of teachers, 139, 140. 

Sanitation, school, 688, 689. 

Schneider, Dean Herman, University 
of Cincinnati, 223, 224. 

School Board, function in moral train- 
ing, 733- 

School buildings, decoration of, 339, 
340, 698, 700. 

School credits, 426, 427. 

School paper, Chapter XVIII, 424, 
425. 

School records, 425, 426. 

School sanitation, 688, 689. 

School sports, 731, 732. 

School study versus home study, Chap- 
ter XL 

Scudder, Janet, 700. 

Secondary education, in Austria, 174, 
175; in Canada, 175; in England, 
174; in France, 174; in Germany, 
172-174; in Japan, 175; in Sweden, 

Secret societies, 411. 

Service, training by means of, 734, 735. 

Sex hygiene, 322. 

Shortcomings of high school, 42-44. 

Sisson, E. O., 737. 

Six year high school, 358. 

Social activities of high school stu- 
dents, administration of, Chapter 
XVI. 

Social administration, Chapter I, 12. 

Social appeal of study, 292. 

Social centre, high schools as, Chap- 
ter XXI, 519-521, 531, 532; in high 
and ward schools, 542, 543. 

Social conditions, force of, 523-526. 

Social economy, 28, 29. 

Social education, 34, 35. 

Social enterprise, high school educa- 
tion as a, Chapter II. 

Social experimentation, 727, 728. 

Social expert, 35i~353- 

Social functions, 415; advisory board 
of, 416, 417; advisory council of, 
417; student council of, 417,418. 

Social inertia, 213, 214. 

Social institution, school as, 729. 

Social pressure on high school, 238, 
239- 

Social side of athletics, 434, 435- 



INDEX 



847 



Social standard of educational values, 
218, 219. 

Social teacher, 319-352. 

Social utility, 29; of traditional sub- 
jects, 36-39. . 

Socialized curriculums and course of 
study, Chapter VIII, 240-244. 

Society and school, 3, 4. 

Sociology, medical, 668, 669. 

Socrates, 232. 

South Carolina, state laws of, 68. 

South Dakota, state laws of, 83. 

Spaulding, Superintendent, 117, 120, 
128-132. 

Special student in high school, 581. 

Specific instruction in Biblical litera- 
ture and in Biblical history, 747- 
75i. 

Spirit of the school, 730, 731. 

Sports, school, 731, 732; conduct of, 
440-442. 

Standards, lack of uniform, 656. 

State, duty of, in training teachers, 

733, 734- 

Statistics for high schools, 104-107. 

Statistics for public schools, 102-104. 

Status, change in the teacher's, 733. 

Stockbridge, F. P., 517. 

Strong, Josiah, 600. 

Student council of social functions, 
417,418. 

Student self-government, 377, 418, 
729, 73o. 

Study, factors in, 269, 270; function of 
books in, 279, 280; habits, 302, 303; 
home-reform, 295-297; plans for ad- 
justment, 275, 276; psychology of, 
Chapter X; social appeal of, 292; 
supervision of, 276, 280-282; tech- 
nic of, 266-294. 

Study room, 285; illumination of, 286; 
temperature of, 286, 287. 

Sumner, Dean, 341, 342. 

Sunday schools, 582, 583; co-operation 
between high school and, 755-759. 

Superintendent, function of, 362. 

Supervised out-of-class work, 582. 

Supervision, 12, 13, 14, 391, 394. 

Sweden, elementary education in, 175. 



Tables, legal status of states, 96- 

100. 
Teachers, old-fashioned, 330, 331; 

qualities of helpful, 270, 271. 
Technic of study, 266-280, 294. 
Technical high school, 569. 



Tennessee, state laws of, 69, 70. 

Texas, state laws of, 73. 

Text-books for elementary schools, 1 90. 

Theology, 737, 738. 

Thorndike, E. L., 666. 

Thum, William, 225. 

Township high school, 75-77. 

Trade-schools, 560-562. 

Traditional pedagogy, community 

need versus, 313-315. 
Traditional subjects, social utility of, 

36-38. 
Tufts, James H., 599, 707. 



University High School, Chicago, 

727. 
Updegraff, Doctor Harlan, 122, 124. 
Utah, state laws of, S3, 84. 



Vacation schools, 570. 

Vermont, state laws of, 62, 63. 

Vernacular schools in Colonies, 164. 

Victrola, 692. 

Virginia, state laws of, 66, 67. 

Visiting student work, 581. 

Vocational centre, high school as, 532- 

534- 
Vocational courses, 358. 
Vocational education, 32-34. 
Vocational guidance, Chapter XXIV, 

205, 206, 234, 325, 609, 610, 729. 
Volksschulen, 173. 

Wallace, 669. 

Ward, E, J., 536. 

Warthin, A. S., 674. 

Washington Irving High School, 222, 

223. 
Washington, state laws of, 87, 88. 
W. C. T. U., 337- 
West Virginia, state laws of, 70. 
Wetterick, S. J., 516. 
Wilm, E., 744. 
Wisconsin, continuation schools of, 

226, 227; state laws of, 52, 53. 
Wordsworth, 739. 
Work versus play in athletics, 432. 
Works of art, permanent collection of, 

704, 705. 
Wyoming, state laws of, 83. 

Y. M. C. A., 524. 

Zwickau Theses, 753, 754. 



